


Chronicles

by Sueric



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Comedy, Complete, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:35:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 103
Words: 327,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1717334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sueric/pseuds/Sueric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new quest begins for InuYasha and Kagome. Answers come from the strangest of places, and sometimes the truth you seek really can change your life. Sometimes the greatest truths in life can be found by understanding the life of another.  Complete.  Originally archived on Mediaminer and FFnet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The New Quest

“Kongousouha!”

 _Seconds later, the pink light of the spiritual energy engulfing the miko’s arrow split the skies. The two attacks intercepted one another, twisted into each other, wrapped around each other like the best of friends. Whizzing through the air, the diamond spears that shot out of Tetsusaiga suddenly absorbed the spiritual energy. All of the diamonds glowed pink, glowed hot, and struck_.

 _With a bellow, a cry, a shriek borne from the bowels of hell, the entity that was Naraku unleashed the sound that deafened the hanyou that brought him to his knees. Incredibly, Naraku remained standing_.

 _InuYasha clung to Tetsusaiga’s hilt as every nerve in his skull threatened to explode. Higurashi Kagome darted to his side, knelt down to assess his injuries. He strained to tell her that they weren’t anywhere she could see or fix_.

“ _Are you hurt? Did he hit you?” she asked, her voice airy, breathless_.

 _He glared at her obvious concern and struggled to get to his feet again. “Keh! Get the hell away before_ —”

 _InuYasha didn’t have time or strength enough to do anything but push Kagome aside. She stumbled back, landing on her rear and skidding across the ground. “InuYasha!” she protested. Her eyes widened in shock as she screamed,_ “Watch out!”

 _He didn’t have time to turn to see why she was yelling. Naraku’s vines impaled him with a sickening gurgly-slurp resonance. The pain—intense, hot—reverberated through his body in waves, and he cried out._ ‘Bastard’s gonna try to absorb me!’ _InuYasha thought as he tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga and slammed it point down in the ground to anchor himself against being dragged closer. He grunted in pain as the vines tugged at him_.

“ _Worthless half-breed!” Sesshoumaru taunted as he cracked his knuckles. “Stand back_.”

“ _Fuck you!” InuYasha gasped. He was unable to do anything more than snarl at his half-sibling for the deliberate slight. He shook his head stubbornly, trying to force away the vertigo that remained wrapped around his brain as his stomach felt as if it were being ripped in half. Naraku wrenched him again. InuYasha couldn’t contain the scream that tore from his lips_.

 _Sesshoumaru severed the vine with a quick stroke of his poison claws, and InuYasha grunted as his body fell to the ground. A flicker of emotion crossed Sesshoumaru’s normally stoic countenance. It was gone before InuYasha could discern it. Jamming the tip of Tenseiga into the ground, Sesshoumaru reached down, took hold of the severed vine, and yanked. InuYasha’s agonized scream rivaled Naraku’s earlier version_.

 _Sesshoumaru tossed the vine to the side and retrieved his sword before turning back, squaring his shoulders as he gazed at what was left of Naraku. Burbling and trying to laugh with a maniacal grin, Naraku’s face—the only part of him that looked even remotely human—surveyed the destruction he’d left behind_.

With a gasp, Kagome jerked awake, blinking into the darkness. Shippou, the kitsune child that always shared her sleeping bag, rolled over, muttering, “Mmm . . . pocky . . .” as he drifted back to sleep. Kagome sighed. Thanks to that dream, she’d be awake the rest of the night.

She sat up and glanced around then looked up at the treetop canopy for good measure. ‘ _Weird_ ,’ she thought with a frown. ‘ _Where’s InuYasha?_ ’ Carefully she scooted out of the sleeping bag and stretched before wandering toward the stream.

‘ _It’s been three days since we defeated Naraku. When we get back to the village, we’ll figure out how to get rid of the Shikon no Tama._ ’ She sank down by the water and rinsed her face. ‘ _What then? What’ll I do? Do I just go back home and forget about everything here? And everyone?_ ’

She wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her raised knees. ‘ _Sango’s like a sister to me. What’ll I do if I can’t talk to her every day? Miroku’s like a brother—a really flirty brother_ . . .’ She made a face, remembering how many times Miroku had taken advantage of any given situation to stroke her butt. ‘ _Maybe not a brother. More like a dirty old man—just not old . . . Shippou’s like my own son, really. I can’t remember not having him around. He always makes me smile, no matter how sad or angry I am_.’ She sighed. ‘ _And then there’s InuYasha_ . . .’

She stared at the moonlight reflecting off the surface of the stream. Slivers of silver dancing in the night, gently playing tag on the water’s cresting ripples. ‘ _What about InuYasha?_ ’

 _In the end, InuYasha had been too weak from the hole in his stomach to go after Naraku. Sesshoumaru had been too busy fending off the vines that just kept coming. Kagome had been shocked to see the inu-youkai stand in defense of his ‘worthless half-breed’ brother. Miroku had been struggling against the kazaana. It had been torn during the battle. He could barely keep the prayer beads on his hand to seal the wind tunnel. Sango had to hold the rosary in place_.

 _Kikyou walked out of the forest into the clearing. She was proud, purposeful in her movements. She strode up to Naraku and closed her eyes, engulfing herself and him in her miko’s aura. “Kikyou!” InuYasha screamed. “No!” He tried to stumble forward, shaking off Kagome’s hands as she tried to hold him back_.

 _Sesshoumaru caught him and carelessly shoved him aside. “Be not a fool, InuYasha! Do you truly wish to die this day?_ ”

“ _Kagome!” Miroku called out, face contorted in a grimace of pain. “Kikyou alone doesn’t have enough power to purify him! You must help her!_ ”

“ _Right!” Nocking back an arrow, Kagome carefully took aim._ ‘Hit him in the spider mark . . . Purify him forever,’ _she chanted to herself as she stretched the bowstring_. ‘Purify him so he can’t hurt anyone ever again!’ _She let go. The arrow whizzed through the air, whistling softly as it skimmed across the ground, shrouded in her pink aura. Kagome held her breath, watching, waiting, hoping, praying_ . . .

 _Five of Naraku’s runners shot out to impale Kikyou. InuYasha screamed and struggled to his feet again. He lurched forward. Sesshoumaru knocked him back again. “You must learn to—stay—down!_ ”

 _Kikyou’s aura grew brighter. With the last of her spiritual powers, she wrapped Naraku up in her light. Kagome’s arrow struck exactly where she’d aimed, and Naraku’s body exploded in a million sparkles of light. The cut-off pieces of vine withered, disintegrated into blackest dust and blew away. Kikyou fell to the ground_.

 _InuYasha screamed her name again and managed to stumble over to her_.

‘She’s dying again,’ _Kagome thought as she turned away. As sad as it was to see Kikyou suffering once more, she couldn’t deny that the majority of her pain stemmed from the tender way InuYasha lifted Kikyou’s shoulders, settled her head in his lap_.

 _She didn’t need to be told when Kikyou finally died. Instantly Kagome felt something slam into her. It didn’t hurt but she staggered. The impact alone was enough to drive her to her knees._ ‘It’s the rest of my soul,’ _she thought vaguely._ ‘That means Kikyou . . .’

 _“Kagome!” Dazed, Kagome looked up into the faces of her friends—Sango, Miroku, and Shippou—who had been hiding in the forest with Jaken and Sesshoumaru’s human girl, Rin. “Are you all right?” Shippou asked, his large emerald eyes wide with concern_.

“ _Fine,” she assured them. “I’m fine.” Her voice was too calm, too steady. She smiled at her friends. Her gaze roved over the wrecked landscape but stopped as she noticed something she had missed before. In all the fighting and her concern for InuYasha, she hadn’t noticed that Sesshoumaru must have taken a hit from one of Naraku’s tendrils. The youkai lord was as stoic and impassive as ever, but blood dripped from his arm. Kagome willed herself to stand despite the odd weakness that had settled over her, and she stumbled forward despite her friends’ protests that she should sit a little longer_.

“ _Sesshoumaru? You’re bleeding,” she said as she approached the youkai. “Let me help you_.”

 _He slowly pinned her with his amber gaze. She thought she saw a hint of respect in his stare. “Your medicines will not benefit me, Miko. This Sesshoumaru will be healed within the hour_.”

 _At her skeptical expression, Sesshoumaru flipped his arm up to move his sleeve. The gash on his arm was deep. She looked closer. The edges were beginning to pull together, to meld itself together. Then she noticed something else that she hadn’t before. On the ground where his blood had dripped was a black sludge. She watched as another scarlet droplet fell from his fingertip. The blood hissed like water in a red-hot pan, steaming, sizzling_ . . .

“ _He’s a poison youkai, Kagome,” InuYasha pointed out. She gasped softly. She hadn’t realized he had moved to her side. “Why do you think it took so fucking long to heal after he stuck his hand through me? His blood is like acid. You can’t help him_.”

“ _Save your concern for the pathetic ones who need it, Miko,” Sesshoumaru remarked before he turned and walked away. “Come!” he called as he neared the forest. Rin and Jaken ran out of the woods   to join the youkai_.

“ _Let me see your injuries,” she said, turning back to InuYasha. He was pale, and he looked exhausted_.

 _When he intercepted her concerned look, however, he snorted. “Keh. I’m fine._ ”

 _She shook her head. “Sure you are. Humor me, and let me look_.”

“ _Wait till we find a place to camp.” He started away but suddenly stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her, his gaze bright; golden light, a curious appraisal in the depths of his stare. “You coming or not? We ain’t got all day_.”

 _Only then did Kagome smile. She hurried forward to walk beside him_.

Kagome blinked as the memory faded away. Lost in the shadows by the gurgling stream, she sighed softly and waited for morning to come. ‘ _Over two years_ ,’ she thought with a wan smile. ‘ _It’s taken over two years to come this far, and now that it’s almost over . . . I wish I didn’t have to think about this. I should be in my time, with my family and my friends at my school . . . but I want to be here with my friends who are like family—and with InuYasha_. . .’

“. . . Must find it, InuYasha-sama! If it fell into the wrong hands, who knows how they would use it against you?”

“Keh!”

The voices were coming closer. InuYasha and Myouga, the flea youkai were approaching. ‘ _What are they talking about?_ ’ She reached up, unconsciously wrapping her hand around the nearly complete Shikon no Tama that hung from a chain around her neck. They were supposed to meet with Kouga in the morning. The leader of the wolf youkai had agreed to hand over the last two shards that would complete the jewel.

“You were meant to have it! You _must_ find it!”

“If I was meant to have it, why can’t you just tell me where the hell it is?” InuYasha’s voice had moved upward. Kagome’s gaze rose to the treetops. She didn’t see him.

Myouga sighed. “It’s been taken, that’s why! Someone stole it, and you’ve got to find it or the consequences could be dire!”

“Quit your damn whining,” InuYasha scoffed. “It can’t make that big a difference. It’s just a fucking—”

“Oh! Such a disrespectful son! Your mother and father—”

“—Are dead. _Long_ dead. What does it matter if I find it or not? It won’t change a fucking thing now, will it?”

Kagome flinched at the open bitterness, the seething anger in InuYasha’s tone. She knew it was a sore spot with him. He never liked to talk about his father or his mother. She sighed.

“It might! It might change everything, if you knew!”

“You’re giving me a headache, Myouga. Go away.”

“InuYasha-sama . . .”

InuYasha sighed. He didn’t do that often, and Kagome frowned. InuYasha had said before that she had more curiosity than was good for her and that someday it would come back to haunt her. Still she wondered what would make him sigh. “Fine, I’ll look for it after we get rid of the Shikon no Tama.”

“That’s just it, my lord! You mustn’t destroy the jewel—not yet; not until after you’ve completed your task! ”

“Enough, Myouga! Damn!”

“Ow!”

Kagome shook her head, visioning InuYasha squashing the flea between his fingers in an effort to shut him up. “InuYasha?” she called softly.

The distinct rustle of leaves, and suddenly InuYasha dropped to the ground beside her. She could see the glimmer in his eyes as he stared at her, his brows furrowing together. “What are you doing out here?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I had that dream again.”

He sank back, crossing his legs and folding his hands together under the generous sleeves of the fire-rat haori. “Keh. A dream can’t hurt you.”

She didn’t respond to that. “How are your wounds?” she asked, knowing what his answer would be but wanting to change the subject.

“What wounds?” he scoffed with an arrogant toss of his head.

“Duh!”

“Don’t ‘duh’ me, wench.”

“Don’t ‘wench’ me, dog-boy.”

“Wench.”

“Baka.”

“Bitch—”

“Osuwari!”

“Ungh!” He struggled to push himself off the ground as the effects of the word of subjugation wore off. He pinned her with a glower and growled. “Damn it, Kagome!”

“What were you and Myouga talking about?” she asked calmly.

InuYasha turned his face away and stubbornly closed his eyes. “Nothing.”

She tried again. “What is this ‘thing’ you’re going to look for?”

“Dunno what you’re talking about.”

“I heard you, InuYasha. Myouga said you have to find ‘it’ because ‘it’ has been stolen, and ‘it’ is supposed to be yours. So what is ‘it’?”

InuYasha didn’t answer right away. Kagome frowned as she let her chin fall to her knees again. ‘ _Stubborn jerk!_ InuYasha no baka! _Why doesn’t he ever want to tell me anything? Why do I always have to drag stuff out of him?_ ’

“Myouga said it’s something that I should have gotten a long time ago. That’s all.” He stared at her for a few moments then shook his head slowly. He pulled off his haori and slung it over her shoulders. “Baka. The nights are getting colder, and you ain’t got enough sense to keep warm.”

She rolled her eyes but pulled the haori closer around herself. “I wasn’t cold,” she argued.

“Keh! Pathetic girl.”

“What’s really bothering you?” she asked quietly. She knew him, understood him. The look he shot her confirmed her suspicions. There really was something else on his mind, and for that reason, she let his deliberate taunts go without taking them to heart.

“It’s too easy.”

“What is?”

His already dark glower deepened. “Kouga. He’s had those shards way too long. He’s not just going to hand them over. He wants something in exchange.”

“Like what?”

InuYasha snorted and narrowed his eyes as though he thought that she was deliberately being dense. “What do you think?”

Her eyebrows rose, proclaiming her innocence. “I don’t know. Why else would I have asked you?”

He raked his claws on the ground as though trying to ease some of his frustration. “Just promise me you’ll stay behind me, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed reluctantly. “I still don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“You, baka! He’ll try to exchange the shards for you.”

“Wha—?” She cut herself off as gales of laughter spilled out of her. The longer she laughed, the more irritated InuYasha became, and the more irritated he became, the harder Kagome laughed.

“I’m serious!” he growled.

She waved his words away with a flutter of her wrist as she dropped her forehead to her knees and tried to control her laughter. It didn’t work.   “I’m s-sorry!” she stammered between rounds of giggling.

“Keh.”

She finally wound down, wiping the laughter-induced tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m not going anywhere with Kouga,” she remarked as she leaned forward to rub InuYasha’s ear. He jerked his head back out of her grasp.

“Knock that off!”

She let her hand fall away but still grinned mischievously. “So when are we leaving to find this _thing_ of yours?”

“ _We?_ ” he echoed, shifting his gaze to the side, avoiding her eyes.

“Yes, _we_. I’m coming with you.”

InuYasha stared off into the distance without seeing a thing. He blinked a couple of times then sighed and finally met her gaze. “I’m going alone.”

“You can’t go alone. We’re friends, remember? I want to help you. I’m going.”

“No, you’re not. You’re going back to your time where you’ll be safe while I go alone.”

“InuYasha!”

He shook his head slowly. “Kagome, this is something I have to do by myself.” He hopped up and reached down for Kagome’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go back to the camp.”

She allowed him to pull her to her feet and followed him down the narrow path. Something about this new mission was bothering him. She could feel his reticence as though it was a physical thing. She returned his haori as she sank down by the fire. He quickly put it on before leaping into a tree. He stared at her a long time. She could feel his probing eyes, like he was trying to read her mind.

Neither spoke as the sun slowly rose, streaking the heavens in golds and oranges and reds, and a new day began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> _**Kongousouha**_ : _Diamond Spear Blast._  
>  Diamond, spear, and blast (destroy): Tetsusaiga's technique.
> 
>  
> 
> _**Kazaana** : Wind Tunnel (Miroku's `weapon')_  
> 


	2. The Last Two Shards

“Oi, Kagome! Long time, no see! Still hanging with the trash,” Kouga greeted as he stepped into the clearing. Ginta and Hakkaku straggled in after. “You're looking well. Guess scrounging around with dog-shit isn't hurting you at all.”

InuYasha growled. “Just hand over the shards,” he snarled.

“Take it easy, mutt-face. I'll give them to Kagome,” Kouga leaned to the side to peek around InuYasha. Kagome rose on her tiptoes to see over InuYasha's shoulder.

“Stay away from her,” InuYasha warned.

“I give them two minutes before InuYasha draws Tetsusaiga,” Miroku commented quietly.

Sango sighed and leaned toward the monk to make her assessment of the situation at hand. “Not even, if you ask me.”

Shippou hopped up on InuYasha's shoulder. “You're not still trying to steal Kagome away from InuYasha, are you?”

“Keh!” InuYasha growled, thumping Shippou hard.

“Ow!” Shippou whined as he dropped to the ground.

Kagome scooped him up and rubbed his head. “InuYasha!”

“That's mature, dog-shit,” Kouga remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. “See, Kagome? You'd be so much better off with me than with him. Come with me, and I'll show you how a _real_ man treats his woman.”

Miroku and Sango sighed as InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga and swept the air slowly, deliberately before bringing it down before him. “Touch her and die, bastard. Now hand over the shards before I hack you to bits.”

“Ah, my lovely Sango, you would have won, if we had really made that bet,” Miroku muttered.

Sango nodded. Kagome shoved Shippou into her arms and stomped around InuYasha's back. “Stop posing before you start a fight,” she advised him.

“I _told_ you to stay behind me,” InuYasha bit out.

Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes. “Let me get the shards.” Eyebrows drawing together and hands tightening on the sword, InuYasha ground his teeth together and opened his mouth, undoubtedly to tell her to get behind him and shut up. Kagome cut him off. “Don't make me say `it', InuYasha.”

“Like I fucking care if you say—”

“Osuwari.”

The hanyou growled furiously as he smacked down in the grass. Kagome hurriedly turned to face Kouga. “Thanks for agreeing to give them up,” she said softly.

Kouga shrugged. “They served their purpose.”

Kagome smiled as she recalled her first meeting with Kouga and his tribe. She'd been scared at the time. Kouga had attacked InuYasha after the wolf tribe decimated a human village. Kouga kidnapped her when he learned that Kagome could see jewel shards, and if that wasn't enough of an insult to InuYasha since Kouga had managed to nab her out from under his nose—literally—then Kouga had made the situation infinitely worse by declaring his undying love and devotion to Kagome. When InuYasha came to save her, he was even further incensed when he found out that Kagome had agreed to help Kouga and the wolves in their battle against the Birds of Paradise.

Instead of getting better over time, the rivalry between the two had grown steadily worse, even though Kagome tried not to encourage Kouga at all since she really wasn't interested in him. InuYasha wouldn't listen when she said as much, and Kouga always thought she was playing hard to get.

“Can I have them?” she asked when Kouga made no move to hand them over.

Kouga grinned. “On one condition.”

“I knew it!” InuYasha fumed as he scrambled to his feet. He grabbed Kagome's arm to drag her back.

“Osuwari!”

“Ungh!”

“What's your condition?” Kagome made herself ask, afraid to hear Kouga's terms.

“One kiss, Kagome, to tide me over until I can come and claim you. Until we can restore our lands, it isn't safe to bring you home. Once they are, though—” He took her hand and pulled her close. InuYasha growled, forced to wait for the effects of the submission to wear off. “So kiss me now, and I'll give you the shards.”

“Uhh,” Kagome hedged, positive her face was on fire. Her skin was burning, scalding her eyeballs. She could only imagine what her friends were thinking. She didn't dare look at InuYasha. On the one hand, kissing Kouga would only lead to trouble. Kouga didn't need any more encouragement, and InuYasha . . .

She sighed inwardly. On the other hand, they needed those last two shards to complete the jewel, and that absolutely had to take precedence.

“Are you _considering_ it?” InuYasha bellowed. The submission spell had obviously worn off.

She turned in time to see him stomping toward her, and he looked more angry than he had when they'd found Naraku days before. “Osuwari!” she said for the third time, flinching as InuYasha ended up on the ground yet again. ` _I'm going to have to apologize for that_ ,' she thought as she turned back to face a very amused Kouga. ` _Do it fast, Kagome, or you're going to have to say `it' to InuYasha again, and he'll never accept your apology for that_ _. . ._ '

Before she could talk herself out of it, Kagome braced herself against Kouga's arm and rose up on her toes to kiss Kouga's cheek. She'd kissed her brother, Souta longer than she did the wolf youkai. When she stepped back and dared to look at him, he looked like the happiest man on the planet.

He held out the shards and dropped them into her open hand then leaned in, kissing her cheek. With a jaunty wave, Kouga took off with his gaping-mouthed tribesmen in tow. Kagome stared at the shards in her hand, not daring to turn and see her friends' reactions.

Shippou was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. “Kagome? Why did you kiss Kouga?”

“We . . . We needed the last two shards, and it wasn't a real kiss . . .” She made a face. Her excuse sounded lame to her own ears. She could imagine how it sounded to everyone else. . . .

“You shouldn't have done that, Kagome,” Miroku commented. “It's hard enough to put Kouga off on your best days. With the added incentive of that kiss . . .”

Kagome sighed. “I know.”

Sango laid a hand on Kagome's shoulder. “Kagome, I think—”

“I know,” she interrupted. “You think it was a mistake too, but we had to have the shards, and—”

“No,” Sango broke in gently. “I think you'd better try to find InuYasha.”

“What?” 

Sango winced. “When you kissed Kouga, he left, and he looked furious.”

Kagome stifled a groan. “Which way did he go?”

Miroku shook his head. “I wouldn't, Kagome. I think you'd be better off to let him calm down. He'll come back when he's ready.”

Kagome sank down on a fallen tree and fitted the last two shards into the jewel. The Shikon no Tama erupted in the soft pink light of her miko energy, and the shards melted into the whole. The glow faded as Kagome stared at the newly completed jewel with a frown. Like colored water in a snow globe, hazy pink, iridescent purples, and pure white swirled and eddied inside the jewel.

` _Good job, Kagome. I thought he'd want me to get the shards back. What does it matter anyway, if I kissed Kouga's cheek? I've seen him kiss Kikyou on the lips, no less. Still . . . Oh, what was I thinking? InuYasha is never going to speak to me again_.'

With another long sigh, Kagome looked the jewel necklace around her throat and fastened it, wondering just how long InuYasha would be gone.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome rolled over in her sleeping bag to stare at the dancing flames of the campfire. InuYasha still hadn't come back. ` _What if something happened to him? He gets careless sometimes, especially when he's angry_ _. . ._ _'_ She stared into the fire awhile longer then sighed. There wasn't any way she'd be able to sleep until she knew that InuYasha was safe.

Careful not to disturb Shippou, Kagome got up and grabbed her bow and arrows. Kirara mewed at her and ran to her side. She had just wandered a little way into the forest when she gasped in shock as InuYasha dropped directly into her path, hands on hips, eyes flashing in the darkness. “What the hell do you think you're doing?”

Kagome backed up a step and reminded herself that it was her own idea to go looking for the hanyou. “I was worried,” she admitted softly, feeling unaccountably flustered. Twisting her hands around her bow nervously, she couldn't meet his gaze.

“You sure you weren't busy dreaming about Kouga?”

“We needed the shards . . .”

“And you needed the excuse.”

Her chin shot up, and she pinned him with a suspicious glower. “What are you accusing me of, InuYasha?”

“Not a fucking thing, bitch.”

“I didn't _want_ to kiss him!”

“Keh. If you didn't _want_ to, then you _should_ have told him to go to hell!”

Kagome turned on her heel and headed back toward the camp. “Baka! I don't know why I even _bothered_ feeling bad for saying ` _it'_ so many times!”

“Well, what's stopping you? Say it a few more times, why don't you?” he bellowed. Sango sat up. Miroku was leaning on his elbow, blinking away the remnants of sleep from his vision.

“Don't tempt me!”

“ _Bitch!_ ”

“ _Osuwari! Osuwari, osuwari, osuwari,_ _osuwari_ _!_ ”

She heard him hit the ground. She didn't bother to inspect the damage she'd wrought.

“What happened?” Shippou asked with a yawn.

Kagome flopped down next to the fire. “Nothing, Shippou. Go back to sleep.”

InuYasha managed to pull himself out of his osuwari-pit and stomped over to tower over Kagome. “Don't you realize how dangerous it is for you to go _wandering off into the forest in the middle of the night_ _completely alone_ _?”_ Though he had started his tirade in a low albeit clipped tone, by the time he reached the end, he was shouting.

“I wasn't completely alone,” she explained, careful to keep her tone level while she told herself, ` _I will not lose my temper, I will not lose my temper_ ,' again and again. “Kirara was with me, and I had my bow and arrows.”

“Keh!”

“InuYasha,” Miroku broke in cautiously, “aren't you overreacting just a little?”

InuYasha shifted his glower to the monk. “No, I don't think I am,” he bit out.

“Kagome did what she thought was right,” Sango spoke up. “We did need those shards, and Kagome made sure we got them.”

InuYasha growled in response.

“What does it matter?” Shippou asked with a smirk. “Are you jealous?”

“Keh! Why would _I_ care who _she_ kisses? I'm _not_ jealous!” InuYasha roared.

“Then what is bothering you, InuYasha?” Miroku pressed.

He stomped around the fire and plopped down away from everyone, jamming his hands up the sleeves of his haori. “I could have gotten the shards from that mangy wolf,” he stated haughtily. “You let him blackmail you!”

Kagome shook her head. “What does it matter? We got the shards. The Shikon no Tama has been restored. All we have to do now is ask Kaede if she has any idea how to purify it, and—”

“We can't purify it right away,” InuYasha cut in with a loud snort.

Silence fell over them. Kagome remembered Myouga's words that she'd overheard the night before. ` _You mustn't destroy the jewel, not yet; not until after you've completed your task!_ ' Stealing a furtive look at the hanyou, Kagome stifled a sigh. He'd never answer her, if she asked him about it now.

“I thought you weren't thinking of that any longer,” Miroku finally said, measuring his words and his tone to keep from irritating InuYasha even more.

“What the hell are you talking about, monk?”

“Are you not speaking of using the jewel to become youkai?”

Kagome was surprised to hear InuYasha sigh. “No. I have something else I've got to do first though.”

Shippou bounded over and hopped onto InuYasha's shoulder. “Another quest? What for? When do we leave?”

InuYasha shot the kitsune an irritated stare. “ _We_ aren't. I'm going alone.”

“Alone?” Shippou echoed.

Kagome could feel Sango's gaze on her. ` _She thinks I know something, and I really don't_ ,' Kagome thought then wrinkled up her nose.

` _You're going back to your time where you'll be safe while I go_ _alone_.'

Kagome sighed as she stubbornly refused to look at anyone. ` _Fine, InuYasha. Be stubborn. I don't care. Why should I care? I didn't want to go with you, anyway_.' She crawled over and wrapped herself up in her sleeping bag. Under the cover of the blankets, she clenched the jewel in her hand. It pulsed under her fingers, and she closed her eyes. ` _If I tell myself that I don't care enough times, maybe I'll start to believe it_.'

She sighed as Shippou curled up beside her. ` _And while I'm at it, I might as well convince myself that I don't need to breathe, either_.'

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Letting Go

Sango heaved an audible sigh of relief as the group crested the hill that overlooked the picturesque village below. The flooded fields of the rice paddies with the paths of land between were quiet and serene in the peaceful sunlight, the landscape laid out like the picture on a post card. Kagome hopped off Kirara's back and headed toward the forest, toward the path that led to the Bone Eater's Well.

"InuYasha," Sango said, trying to maintain a neutral tone despite her anything-but-neutral thoughts. In her opinion, Kagome might have been wrong to have kissed Kouga but the miko was doing what she thought was best, both to keep InuYasha and Kouga from fighting as well as to gain the last of the jewel shards. InuYasha, however, was being childish and idiotic, dragging his irritation around for far longer than was necessary. "Kagome's leaving."

"Like I care," he scoffed though his eyes followed the retreating girl.

"Don't you?"

"Keh."

"When will you be leaving?" Miroku asked, shooting Sango a quick glance as he tried to move the topic toward a less-volatile route.

InuYasha strode away in the direction Kagome had taken. "Tomorrow morning," he tossed over his shoulder.

"Is he following Kagome?" Sango asked with a frown.

Shippou hopped off Kirara and stretched. "I doubt it. Knowing InuYasha, he's probably heading for Goshinboku. If you ask me, those two should just tell each other how they feel."

Miroku sighed. "It isn't as easy as that, Shippou." He shifted his gaze to lock with Sango's. "It's all a question of timing."

"Timing?" Shippou asked, his expression puzzled.

"Of course. Sometimes, no matter how badly one might want to express what one feels, one must take into consideration the circumstances. Sometimes one has to look their greatest fears in the eye before they can truly know joy. Even if the feelings are there, as with InuYasha and Kagome, there's also the fear of being rejected. In InuYasha's case, I think he'd rather let things continue as they are than to open himself up to the possibility that Kagome might not feel the same way."

"But it's obvious to everyone, how Kagome feels about him! How can he not know?" Shippou pressed.

Miroku shook his head. "What may be obvious to everyone else is not always obvious to the people involved." He cast Sango another significant glance.

Sango flushed. The kitsune blinked in confusion and shrugged before turning tail and scampering off toward the village.

Miroku offered Sango a hand to help her off of the fire-cat. For once, Sango accepted the offer. He didn't let go as the two ambled down the hill toward the village. Miroku squeezed her hand gently. Sango ducked her head to mask her pinking cheeks and smiled.

Kirara transformed back into her little form and mewed softly as she followed behind.

Sango glanced back at the feline youkai. She could swear that Kirara was smiling.

****

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha tried not to glance over toward the Bone Eater's Well. ' _Baka! What do you care if Kagome goes back home? You wanted her to go, remember? Stupid Kagome anyway. What was she_ thinking _? She'll never get rid of that damned wolf now! How could she_ kiss _him?_ ' He winced as tree bark came loose under his claws and stabbed into his palm. He hadn't even realized he had been digging his claws into the wood . . .

He sighed as she emerged from the cover of the trees. Even over the distance, he could smell her, the scent of her carried to him on the invisible waves of the early fall breeze. She wandered slowly toward the well, glancing back over her shoulder as though she was watching, waiting . . . He shook his head. As though he could hear her voice in his head, he knew why she lingered. She was hoping he would stop her, wasn't she? How many times had he done that over the past two and a half years? Nearly every time, he had to admit. If nothing else, he always demanded to know when she would be back.

He shifted on the branch, readied himself to hop down. ' _At least tell her goodbye. I don't have a clue how long it'll take to find it. I could be gone a few weeks or a few months_.' With a disgusted sigh, InuYasha crouched lower to jump.

Kagome's voice drifted to him, no more than a whisper that he heard just the same. "Goodbye, InuYasha." Then she hopped into the well.

He sank back down with a frustrated growl. ' _Oh, well. Maybe it's better this way. At least Kagome won't be trying to talk me into taking her with me. She's the last person I want to drag along. Damn! I don't even care! Why the hell should I? Even if I find it, it won't change a thing. What's past is past. It should be left alone_.'

' _Then again, I_ could _always go to her time, to tell her goodbye . . ._ ' His ears drooped as his gaze fell. ' _It's too soon . . . she's probably still mad at me. Can't really blame her. I acted like an ass_. . .'

 _He hadn't expected her to come looking for him. In the moonlight that rained down thorough the tree branches, her skin had glowed, creamy, incandescent, and all he had wanted to do was to touch her, to see if she was real or if she would fade away like a dream. Delicate, beautiful, Kagome had seemed so far beyond his grasp. If she had any idea how he felt about her, she didn't ever show it. The thought that she was far too good for the likes of him chafed at his already raw nerves, and InuYasha had reacted before he could think about the impact of his words._ " _You sure you weren't busy dreaming of Kouga?_ "

 _Her gaze dropped away, her eyes that always shone with her inner light when she smiled had been too ashamed to meet his stare._ " _We needed the shards_. . ."

 _The shame in her expression somehow made him feel even more like a tyrant. He wanted to reach out, to take her hand, to push the bangs out of her face. Instead he had said,_ " _And you needed the excuse_."

 _Why had she looked like he had struck her? A fleeting glimpse of hurt flashed through her eyes only to be replaced by the much more familiar sense of her frustration. He could deal with her frustration. It was the pain he had trouble with . . ._ " _Baka! I don't know why I even bothered feeling bad for saying 'it' so many times!_ "

 _He knew how to react to that emotion better, so he did._ " _Well, what's stopping you? Say it a few more times, why don't you?" he bellowed_.

" _Don't tempt me!_ "

" _Bitch!_ "

" _Osuwari! Osuwari, osuwari,_ osuwari, osuwari!"

He flinched as the memory subsided. ' _Yep_ , _I deserved that_ ,' he thought with an inward sigh. ' _But maybe . . . maybe Kagome didn't._ '

"InuYasha?"

"What?"

"Will Kagome be back soon?"

InuYasha stared down at the kitsune youkai. Shippou shuffled his feet in the dirt and kept his gaze lowered. He always got depressed when Kagome left. She was like a mother to the youth.

Shoving aside the lingering irritation that he had been just a little too late to say goodbye to Kagome, InuYasha dropped from the tree and sat on the ground. "She's supposed to stay in her time until I get back."

Shippou scrunched up his shoulders and plopped down with a heavy sigh. "But why? Why do you both have to go away at the same time? Why can't I come with you?"

InuYasha looked away, staring at the trees above, the wash of green that blocked out the sky. "This is something I have to do alone, Shippou."

The kitsune wasn't ready to give up without an argument. "But we could keep you company! Sango and Kagome love to cook at night, and Miroku helps keep watch over the camp . . . I can gather firewood . . . Can't we come?"

InuYasha felt a twinge of guilt as he shot the kitsune a quick look. "You all just slow me down," he replied, deliberately injecting his normal condescending tone into his voice. "Look how long it took to find all the Shikon no Kakera!" He regretted saying it about the moment it left his lips. Almost instantly he smelled the salt of the kit's tears, and he winced inwardly. ' _Keh! It's better this way. Let them all hate me. I'll tell them I'm sorry when I get back._ '

Shippou choked back a sob and started to run. He stopped suddenly and turned back, his expression mulish, and he stubbornly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Why do you always have to be such a baka?" Shippou screeched. "No wonder Kagome always goes home! You drive her away all the time, and you don't even _care!_ "

InuYasha watched in silence as the kitsune disappeared into the forest once more. He couldn't summon the anger to chase him down for yelling at him.

InuYasha leaped back into the tree and closed his eyes. Shippou was right. He did have a knack for making Kagome run home through the well. Thing was, it wasn't because InuYasha _didn't_ care. ' _Maybe_ ,' he thought with a heavy sigh. ' _Maybe I do care. Maybe I care too much_.'

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome yawned as she opened her eyes and stretched. The breaking light of morning was glowing against her window. Throwing her covers aside and swinging her legs off the bed, she wandered over to stare outside.

InuYasha was leaving today. She sighed.

The others had asked him how long he would be gone. He hadn't been able to say. ' _Why does he seem so sad?_ ' she wondered again. ' _When Sango and Miroku asked him about what it was he had to find . . . why did he look so reluctant?_ '

Bits of the conversation she had overheard came back to her as she stared out the window, at Goshinboku glowing in the pallid rays of dawn.

' _You_ _were meant to have it! You must find it! It might change everything, if you knew!_ '

Kagome opened her window, wrapped her arms around herself against the chill breeze that blew in with the morning's light. ' _We're friends, right? No matter what else there is or isn't between us, InuYasha is my friend—my_ best _friend. Maybe_ I _wasn't such a great friend. He acts so weird whenever Kouga's around. I knew he would, and he's right. I never should have kissed Kouga, even on the cheek. Surely Kouga would have given the shards to me if I had refused. Oh, how could I have been so stupid?_ '

She sighed and flinched. ' _Then_ _I said 'it'—again. I should at least apologize to him for that, right? Before he leaves, I should try to get him to talk to me_.'

As if that night hadn't been bad enough, the next morning had been one Kagome would have rather forgotten, too.

 _Breaking camp was a quiet affair. Tension between InuYasha and Kagome was so thick that no one could summon the courage to break it. As they all go ready to head out, Kagome wasn't sure what she ought to do. Normally she let InuYasha carry her on his back, leaving Sango and Miroku to travel on Kirara with Shippou alternating between Kirara and InuYasha.  She had been ready to make amends with the hanyou but when she took a step toward him, he had intentionally turned away, eyes closed, mouth set, and arms crossed stubbornly over his chest_.

 _So she had ridden Kirara with Sango, leaving Miroku on foot, which would have been fine except about an hour into their traveling, InuYasha had stopped suddenly to glare at her as he yelled, "What the hell are you doing on Kirara, bitch?_ "

" _You acted like you were still mad so I-_ -"

" _Do I_ look _mad?_ "

" _Yeah, actually_. . ."

" _Keh! Get over here, damn it! You're slowing us down!_ "

" _How do you figure?_ "

" _Because with you on Kirara, that leaves Miroku on foot, and_ that _slows us down!_ "

 _Kagome pursed her lips together in a tight line and struggled to keep her tone civil as she said, "I don't think I will_."

" _Stop being a stubborn--_ "

" _Don't say it!" she warned_.

" _—bitch!_ "

" _Osuwari!_ "

They hadn't spoken a single word to each other since.

She sighed as the memory dissipated. Glancing at her clock as she hurried over to her closet, Kagome rushed even more. ' _It's nearly seven_ ,' she thought with a grimace as she tugged off her pajamas and dragged on a pink skirt and white blouse. She grabbed her backpack as she ran out the door, brushing her hair as she flew down the stairs.

"Mama, I've got to go," she said, sticking her head into the kitchen.

Mrs. Higurashi looked up from her coffee cup and smiled in greeting. "Go where, dear?"

Kagome waved her hand toward the door. "I've got to see InuYasha. He's leaving this morning. I don't know when he'll be back, and, well, we sort of argued . . . I need to apologize before he goes, that's all."

"All right," Mrs. Higurashi remarked. "Take a sweater, Kagome. It's a little chilly out this morning."

Kagome nodded and dashed out of the kitchen, grabbing her sweater as she darted for the doors. ' _Don't let me be too late to talk to him!_ ' she thought as she sped toward the well-house. ' _InuYasha . . . wait for me!_ '

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Kagome!"

"Shippou!" she greeted with an air of distraction. She caught the tiny kit and hugged him while she glanced around hoping for a sign that InuYasha was still nearby.

"Baka InuYasha said you weren't coming back for a long time! I'm glad you did, anyway."

Kagome watched as the kitsune dropped out of her arms onto the ground. "Did you bring me anything?"

Thanking her luck that she had packed a few things the night before, Kagome dug into the huge backpack to pull out a box of pocky for the child. He squealed in delight and started to scamper away. "Shippou? Have you seen InuYasha this morning?" she asked, trying in vain for a casual tone.

Shippou snorted. "Yeah. He left about five minutes ago. He still wouldn't say where he's going but he took off that way."

Kagome followed the direction Shippou had indicated. InuYasha had gone west? Why?

"See you in the village, Kagome!" Shippou called over his shoulder as he scampered away.

Kagome didn't answer. ' _Five minutes . . . Maybe I'm not too late. He can't have gotten far_. . .'

Without a second thought, Kagome slung the bag over her shoulder and ran toward the west.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Shikon no Kakera:_ ** _Sacred Jewel Shards_


	4. Mission Impossible

A few things quickly became apparent to Kagome within the first few hours of trailing InuYasha. When he was alone, the hanyou could travel exceptionally quickly. This she knew. She also realized that he often did make frequent stops along the way to accommodate the 'pathetic humans' he traveled with because in the five hours since she'd set out to catch up with him, he hadn't stopped once. This she hadn't known. Finally was the real reason she was still doggedly trying to keep up with him. She was hopelessly lost. This she hadn't realized until it was too late.

' _Oh, what am I doing?'_ she moaned when she lost sight of InuYasha's crimson clothing for the fiftieth time. ' _I never should have tried to catch him! As if!_ '

She was ready to cry. Her entire body was well past aching, and for that she was grateful. No, her body had since moved on to 'numb'. Wiping the sweat from her brow, Kagome scowled in determination as she picked up her pace again—until she glanced at her watch. ' _Noon?_ ' she thought with a muffled whimper. Knowing InuYasha, he'd keep traveling until nearly nightfall.

Pride was the only thing that kept her struggling forward. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Kagome knew—just _knew_ —that if she called out to him that he would hear her, that he would stop for her no matter how irritated he may be with her. Still, she kept pursuing him.

A voice in her head kept whispering to her. She tried to ignore it and concentrated instead on making one foot move in front of the other one when her entire being was absolutely exhausted. ' _I might as well admit it—the real reason I haven't begged for mercy yet,_ ' her conscience spoke up. ' _It's because we're still close enough to the village, he would take me right back, and there's no sense in denying it. I want to go with him. That's the real reason I've followed him. That's the real reason I haven't yelled for him, not once_.'

She caught sight of InuYasha's fire rat haori soaring above the top of the trees and sighed. ' _Stop, for the love of kami!_ ' The trouble was, if he did stop so that she could rest, she was certain her body would shut down and would be rendered useless for at least a week . . . No, better to keep moving . . .

It was going to be a long day.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome bit her tongue to keep from moaning as every muscle in her body screamed in agony. She wasn't sure how far they'd traveled today but she was certain that it would have taken the group of them at least two days to cover this much ground.

He'd kept up the steady pace until nearly nightfall. By the time he had started a campfire and had caught his dinner, Kagome was ready to drop. Finding shelter in a shallow cave, she was near enough to see InuYasha's fire and hopefully, far enough for him to be unable to discern her scent.

She was so sore, in fact, that she had taken a bath in record time with the added incentive of sitting down afterward. In her haste to finish, she'd ended up snapping the chain that held the Shikon no Tama around her neck. Her muscles were jerking and seizing, and when she tried to adjust the chain on her neck, it had snapped. There was no help for it. She'd stuck it into her backpack. It would be safe enough there.

After rolling out her sleeping bag, she had nearly cried in relief as her body breathed a collective sigh in the form of a million little aches and pains that rolled together around her exhausted brain to form one gigantic haze.

' _Hold it together, girl! We've got another whole day of this tomorrow_.'

She whimpered at the reminder. ' _I_ can't _do this again tomorrow!_ ' she thought as tears rose to sting her eyes.

And it didn't help when she remembered, too, that it was her own stupid idea to follow InuYasha.

' _I'm so hungry_ ,' she thought as her eyelids started to grow heavy. She had some energy bars—Miroku loved them—in her backpack. She'd also left her backpack at the foot of her bedroll, and there was no way short of an act of kami that she was budging from her spot till morning. She did, however, check to make sure that her bow and arrows were within reach before letting her eyes close.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha stared at the fire with a pensive frown. He hated to admit it. He was lonely. He even missed Miroku. It had been far too long since he'd had to sit alone, staring at a campfire that he really didn't need. He hadn't bothered with one before unless he had to cook. His gaze shifted to the leftover food. He wasn't sure what he was thinking at the time. He'd caught two rabbits, which was a mistake. He'd forgotten that the others weren't with him. By the time he'd remembered, it was too late.

Maybe it was the sense of loneliness that kept making him think that he smelled Kagome near. More than once during the day, he thought he had caught her scent. Once he had considered stopping and going back to see if she was there. But there wasn't really any way she could have been. She was safe in her time, and he'd made sure he left well before she came back and tried to talk him into dragging her along.

A smell brought him out of his slouch. InuYasha slowly stood, cautiously scanning the surroundings. ' _Youkai_ ,' he thought as he cracked his knuckles. ' _Playtime!_ '

He bounded off to track the fiend.

Drawing abreast of the stream, InuYasha stopped and eyed the serpent youkai that winded into his path. In his human form, the youkai was still unmistakably reptilian. He might be able to hide his viper-teeth but he couldn't hide the forked tongue that darted out, flicking in InuYasha's direction, and his voice was weak, wispy, more of a hiss than an actual voice. "It's-s-s mine! Go away . . . It is-s-s-s mine!"

Crossing his arms over his chest, InuYasha pinned the youkai with a bored stare. "What's yours?"

The youkai's grin showed the long, venomous viper-fangs. "Puppy can't s-s-s-smell the jewel? The Shikon no Tama is-s-s-s-s mine!"

InuYasha's eyes flared as his hand dropped to Tetsusaiga's hilt. ' _If he can sense the Shikon no Tama, then that means . . . Kagome . . . ?_ ' Irritation welled up in his chest, threatening to block out all other emotion as he mentally cursed the girl who apparently didn't possess enough sense to stay where she was safe. He forced the anger aside and, in a flash of movement, InuYasha drew his sword that tightened both hands on it as he stalked closer to the serpent youkai. "What makes you think I'll let you take the jewel?" he growled.

"What makes-s-s-s you think I'd as-s-s-sk your permis-s-s-s-sion?"

"The jewel has too much power for a nasty bastard like you," InuYasha remarked. "I've already wasted way too much time gathering the damn shards to let something like you so much as look at it!"

The serpent threw his head back and laughed. "Why would I be frightened of a half-breed like you?"

"You don't have to be frightened. You just have to _die!"_ Darting forward, InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga.

Slithering to the side and avoiding the blade, the serpent's forked tongue shot out as he opened his mouth and spit a stream of stagnant green acid

InuYasha pushed himself off the ground to avoid the blast. The venom hit a tree and sizzled. InuYasha glanced over his shoulder long enough to see that the maple tree was dissolving in a steaming puddle of black ooze. Gritting his teeth as he raised Tetsusaiga over his head, InuYasha slammed the blade into the earth with a bellowed, " _Kaze no Kizu!_ " Waves of flame erupted from the impact point and shot out. The serpent youkai hadn't been prepared for the attack. With a sharp hiss, the youkai was engulfed in the conflagration of the Wind Scar.

InuYasha waited until the youkai's body disintegrated before he dropped Tetsusaiga into the sheath and sighed.

"Kagome!" he bellowed, unable to locate her scent above the lingering smell of the burned serpent. "Damn her!" he muttered. ' _It'd be easier to protect someone if they stayed where they were told to stay._ ' He glowered at the darkened forest for any trace of the stupid girl. "Kagome!"

Where was she? He couldn't scent her anywhere . . . Suddenly, his head snapped up. Off to the right was a small cave. ' _If she's in the cave_ ,' he thought as he started forward, ' _then I wouldn't smell her, would I?_ '

The smell of her came to him as he neared the entrance, and InuYasha sighed in relief. He hunkered down on the floor beside her and stared at her in the semi-blackness. ' _She's exhausted_ ,' he realized with a wince. ' _Stupid girl! What was she thinking? A human can't keep up with me! What if I had been traveling faster? What then?_ ' His anger suddenly dissipated as images of what could have happened to her filtered through his mind. ' _Baka! I should have known she'd follow me! More beauty than brains in that fucking head of hers . . . She trusts everyone and everything too easily_.'

So why couldn't he be more angry with her? He ought to wake her up and tell her what he thought of her deliberately following him. The face of the serpent youkai came back with a vengeance. InuYasha closed his eyes. If he hadn't gone to see what the youkai was after . . . if he hadn't bothered to hunt him down, the serpent would have gotten to the jewel; would have gotten to Kagome . . .

InuYasha had to swallow the late-rising panic that welled up inside him. He'd noticed before and it struck him again, how innocent, how trusting Kagome looked while she slept. As though nothing in the world could hurt her, she remained calm, content, and somehow, the peace in her reached out to him, and he sighed.

' _I_ can't _take her back. As stubborn as she is, she'll just follow me again. She's got to know she put herself into danger . . . but how? How can I show her how stupid it was to follow me without taking the chance that she'll be harmed? And with the Shikon no Tama, she's going to attract youkai from every direction. The serpent was only the start_ . . .'

He sat up suddenly and stared down at her. Careful not to wake her, he reached out slowly, felt her neck for the chain. It was gone. "Where's the jewel?" he hissed to himself. She wouldn't have lost it . . . The serpent said that he could sense it.

"Bag," Kagome muttered without stirring in her sleep. InuYasha blinked quickly and looked around. Her backpack sat harmlessly by her feet.

It only took him a few seconds to find the jewel and pull it out of the bag. Out of curiosity, he delved into her bag again and shook his head in disgust. She didn't have hardly any food in there. What was she planning on doing? Learning how to hunt out of necessity?

He dropped the bag back where it was and snorted. ' _This is Kagome! She can't hunt! She cried the first time I brought back a rabbit that I hadn't cleaned, remember?_ '

He couldn't help but smile as he remembered. It was a few days after Shippou had joined them, and they were running low on her modern 'convenience' foods. InuYasha had gone hunting, and it hadn't taken long for him to catch a really big rabbit. He hadn't thought twice about bringing it back to the camp, but when he dropped the catch at Kagome's feet, she'd screeched and had stared at him with such shock, such sadness that he had felt terrible about it. It was the first time he ever told her he was sorry, and it was the last time he'd ever brought food into the camp that wasn't ready to be cooked. For reasons he didn't really understand, she didn't mind so much, as long as the offering was skinned and gutted before she clapped eyes on it.

Settling back against the entrance of the small cave, InuYasha sighed again and stared out at the night. From where he sat, he could vaguely see his campfire. He glanced back at Kagome. There was no way he was leaving her. The fire could damn well burn itself out.

Slowly, though, another idea took shape in his mind, and maybe he could make sure Kagome was taken care of while he taught her a lesson at the same time . . .

With a slight grin, InuYasha stared at the Shikon no Tama. It seemed to absorb the colors of the night. There was once a time when he truly had wanted the power it could have given him. He'd come to realize, though, that power always came with a price, and to use the Jewel of Four Souls in such a way was too high a price for him. He didn't want it anymore, but he couldn't allow Kagome to roam around with it, either. She was strong enough in her own way. He knew that better than anyone, but Kagome wasn't a fighter, and InuYasha only prayed that she never would have to be.

InuYasha stuffed the jewel into his haori. If the youkai were going to come after anyone in search of the Shikon no Tama, it was going to be him . . .

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

A sudden sound shocked Kagome wide awake. She sat up quickly and couldn't stave back the pained whimper as every muscle in her body protested the movement. Gritting her teeth together in an effort to keep from screaming in pain, Kagome forced herself to stand up before she moved to the front of the cave to peek outside. She frowned. Though she couldn't see InuYasha, she was positive that he was the one making the ruckus. A tree shook precariously, and Kagome winced as it crashed to the ground in the distance. ' _What is he doing?_ ' she wondered.

Her stomach growled, and she made a face. Too tired last night to do more than curl up and go to sleep, her body was reminding her that if she expected to move it anywhere today that she'd better eat something quickly.

She was half-way through the energy-bar that was her breakfast when the smell of roasting meat hit her hard. She made a face. ' _InuYasha never eats in the morning! What is he doing?_ ' The delicious aroma hit her again, and Kagome felt like crying. ' _I hate him_ ,' she whined, conveniently forgetting that she had been the one who decided to follow him. With a sigh, she ate the rest of the energy bar.

She had just finished repacking her bedroll and gathering the rest of her things when she saw the cloud of smoke rise into the air. InuYasha had extinguished his campfire, and that meant that he was about ready to head out for the day. She waited a few more minutes then headed off toward his camp, careful to keep quiet in case he wasn't as far ahead as she figured he would be.

She frowned as she entered the small clearing. Near the still-smoking remnants of the fire sat a nearly whole cooked rabbit. It was still steaming, and Kagome hurriedly grabbed some before continuing on. The meat was tender enough that it slipped right off the bones, she nearly cried as the smell unleashed a powerful rumble in her stomach. InuYasha had always insisted that whatever food was leftover from meals should be left behind for anyone or anything that might be hungry. She'd never been so glad that he adhered to this creed as she was at that moment.

Vaguely aware that she was eating faster than she ought to, Kagome ate every bit and even licked her fingers, sighing almost happily despite the savage pain in her still-tight muscles. She hadn't realized InuYasha could cook, though it really did make sense. He'd been alone far too long in his youth. If he hadn't known how to cook or hadn't taught himself, he probably would have starved . . .

Stopping long enough to wash her hands in the stream, Kagome blinked in surprise at the tree that traversed the water. ' _So that's what he was doing this morning_ ,' she thought as she climbed onto the fallen tree. She grimaced as she carefully made her way across. After dropping to the ground, Kagome broke into a run despite the pain in her still-protesting muscles. Knowing InuYasha, he was half-way to China by now.

With a heavy sigh, Kagome gritted her teeth and steeled her resolve. She'd keep up with him, even if it killed her, and at this rate, it just might.

 

 

 

 

 


	5. Cat and Mouse

Kagome crawled into her sleeping bag with a heavy sigh. At least InuYasha had traveled a bit slower today. As a result, her muscles weren't quite so stiff, and she didn't feel as though she was tottering on the brink of death.   She wished she had some idea where they were going, where he was leading her. Myouga's cryptic words were enough to worry her, and Kagome sighed into the darkness.

She had considered calling out to InuYasha today. They were certainly further from the village now. He might not take her back. Unfortunately, it occurred to her that he would undoubtedly be furious with her when he discovered that she'd followed him.

He had actually stopped a few times today, resting here and there for a half hour or so at a time. It had been enough for her. If she had to run all day again, she would be sobbing by now. After spending the better part of the last two and a half years hunting down the Shikon no Kakera, Kagome was in reasonably good physical condition. Of course, having spent the majority of that time either being carried by InuYasha, riding on Kirara or on her bicycle, she hadn't gotten this much exercise. Now it seemed as though maybe she was catching up with all of it, all in the course of two days.

Camping against the base of a steep cliff, Kagome wished again that she could start a fire. She could see the merry glow of InuYasha's campfire in the distance, and she sighed sadly. ' _I miss him_ ,' she admitted to herself even as she felt sleep curling around her, ' _and_ _I should check the jewel_.' Her eyes drifted closed, and she smiled wanly.

She could feel it. The jewel was near. It was safe.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha sat at the top of the cliff listening to the sound of Kagome's breathing. So attuned to her that he could tell the very instant she'd fallen asleep, he stared up at the moon. ' _Why did she follow me?_ '

In truth, it didn't bother him so much, the abbreviated speed of his travel. In order to keep Kagome from completely exhausting herself, he had slowed his pace considerably, and if he were honest with himself, the only reason he had been hurrying so much on the first day was because he just wanted to get this over with so he could go back to the village, to the forest that he called home, so that Kagome could purify the jewel, and so that he could think about the things he'd tried to avoid for the last few years.

There should have been more of a feeling of accomplishment when they'd finally defeated Naraku. Somehow InuYasha couldn't think of it as a victory. Everyone had lost something that day.

Sango had lost Kohaku. Her young brother might have died the day they killed Naraku, but the child that had been Kohaku had died so long ago that InuYasha didn't think he would have been able to live with what he'd done. It wouldn't have mattered that Naraku had possessed him and had made him do it. The guilt was something that was hard to live with. Hadn't InuYasha felt the same way about Kikyou?

Miroku had lost the kazaana. That was a good thing. Still, he'd lived with the curse for so long, InuYasha didn't doubt that the missing wind tunnel did weigh on the monk. Miroku had built a life out of using his curse as a blessing. In that sense, he would miss it.

Shippou's loss had come long before. The kitsune child had lost his father because of the Shikon no Kakera. The Thunder Brothers, in their plight to have the shards, had murdered the kit's father long ago. InuYasha had done what he could by slaying the brothers. Still, he knew better than anyone that nothing could ever replace the loss of one's parents.

Strangely, Kagome had probably lost the most and yet was the most unaffected by it all. She'd given up her normal life in her world around the things that she knew to hunt the shards. In the beginning, InuYasha had told her that it was her fault, that she had shattered the jewel when she shot the carrion crow's foot tied to her arrow. He knew even then that it wasn't. She hadn't ever meant to do such a thing. At that time, though, he couldn't ask her to stay, to help him. He hadn't been able to admit, even to himself, that he might need anyone, let alone the reincarnation of the woman he had loved.

Then she'd nearly lost her soul to Kikyou when Urasue had brought the miko back to life. In the end, it was Kagome who had been able to recall most of her soul. InuYasha hadn't saved her then. He'd been the reason that Kikyou had been resurrected. ' _If I hadn't called out her name . . ._ ' he sighed. He had always wondered what it was about Kagome, why she was able to forgive everything so quickly. In the end, the only reason he'd ever been able to come up with was because she was Kagome.

Kikyou's parting words came back to him.

_As she lay in his arms, and he knew she was dying again, she'd smiled at him, and it was a smile that he had known. Somehow, in those last moments, the Kikyou he'd known had found her way back. Her hand reached out to touch his face, and her voice was soft as she said, "InuYasha . . . You died for me once . . . now live . . . for her. Take care of her_."

" _I will._ "

" _I've done what I needed to do. I've avenged our deaths, and that is enough_."

 _"Goodbye, Kikyou," he   replied and nodded as the souls that Kikyou carried—both the part of the soul that belonged in Kagome as well as the ones that had been gathered together, left her. With the last of the souls gone, the body that had sustained Kikyou since she had been resurrected so long ago dissolved and returned to dust_.

InuYasha turned her words over again in his mind, ' _Take care of her_.'

The song came to him softly. The words had been written deep in his heart so long ago. He heard it on the wind, in the wash of waves against the shore, whispering in the rustle of the trees. He hadn't voiced it for a very long time. It was the song he associated with loneliness, with sadness, even though he knew deep down that it wasn't always so.   He remembered his mother singing the song to him. She'd called it his lullaby, and after she died, InuYasha sang it often. It kept her close to him, held him when he was alone. He'd outgrown the childish wish that if he sang it loud enough, often enough, that his mother would come back for him. He hadn't outgrown the comfort the song offered him.

He sighed again as he stared at the moon. Kagome was asleep below in the darkness. She might as well have been in her time, five hundred years away from him.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

 _She was wandering in the darkness, looking for something or someone that should have been there waiting for her_.

'Who am I looking for?'

 _There   was no answer. Kagome wandered on. There was nothing. Caught in the blackness of a void, alone and cold, she was lost._ 'Someone? Anyone? Can you hear me?'

 _No answers in the blackness that mocked her. Teasing her with silence that hurt, one word finally came to her._ 'Listen.'

 _Kagome turned around, narrowing her eyes to discern the speaker in the darkness._ 'Listen? Listen to what?' _She broke into a run yet couldn't move forward. Caught in the mire of the immobile dream, she struggled to move on yet could not find anything_.

 _She gasped as a spotlight flashed on in the distance. Sango stood in her youkai exterminator's clothing. Kagome tried to run to her, desperate not to be left alone. Sango sadly shook her head. Kagome reached out to touch her as Sango faded away_.

'Sango!'

 _Another spotlight highlighted Miroku. Again Kagome ran. He smiled apologetically and paled before Kagome could touch him_.

'Miroku!'

 _Shippou hopped up and down, bathed in the harsh white light. With a smothered sob, Kagome sprinted toward the kitsune. Like the others, he disappeared just before she could reach him_.

'Shippou!'

 _Kagome dropped to her knees in the engulfing gloom as a sob rose to choke her. She was alone, truly alone. She'd_ chosen _to be alone._ 'There's something missing,' _she whispered, gazing around, searching for the one she knew but couldn't bring to mind. As though he would disappear as soon as she put a name into words, Kagome asked herself,_ 'What's missing? Who's missing?'

 _The soft voice broke through the darkness, holding her with invisible arms that sheltered her, comforted her. The blackness slowly retreated. The light seemed to radiate out of her, reaching for the one that soothed her. She knew the voice, but . . ._ 'InuYasha?' _Was he the one who was missing? Yes . ._ .

 _Yet he didn't fade away. The vision of him grew stronger. She could feel the real strength in his arms, could feel the reverberation of his song against her cheek._ 'The only reality in my life?' _she mused_. 'InuYasha . . .'

 _Wrapping his arms around her, holding her close as the gentle resonance of his voice sang to her. His voice chased away the remnants of the dark, and she sat with him in the boughs of Goshinboku. He cradled her against him, sang the ancient song she somehow knew. Melancholy but beautiful, it broke her heart and mended it at the same time. She smiled up at him. He pulled her closer against his chest. InuYasha's song surrounded her, steadied her, and she knew she was safe at last_.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome yawned and stretched as the sun poked her eyelids. She felt surprisingly well-rested considering her body still ached. ' _At least InuYasha didn't hack down any trees this morning_ ,' she thought with a rueful grin as she struggled to sit up.

She put away her blankets and saw the smoke cloud rise that meant InuYasha had extinguished his campfire. With a sigh, she hefted her bag and slung the straps over her shoulders. Grabbing her bow and quiver of arrows, Kagome started out again. She was thankful to see that InuYasha had again left food behind.

' _I should tell him today_ ,' she thought as she polished off the meat.

She frowned, suddenly remembering the odd dream she'd had. Normally she didn't recall many of her dreams. This one, though . . . It had seemed like a nightmare, with all of her friends leaving her behind, but in the end . . . Her frown faded as she remembered the end of the dream.

' _InuYasha sang to me? Now I know I'm really losing it,_ ' she thought with a wry grin. Still . . . the song was one that spoke to her heart, and though it seemed somehow familiar, she knew she'd never heard it before.

She was jarred out of her reverie when the earth shook under her. Kagome lost her footing and slipped. ' _What the—?_ ' Struggling to her feet, Kagome ran, bent over, skittering from side to side as the ground continued to quake.

With a gasp, she dropped to her knees and peeked out from behind a boulder. InuYasha stood, feet apart and Tetsusaiga drawn as he faced a hulking bull youkai. The bull was stomping his massive hooves, and that was what caused the tremors. The bull lurched forward, lowering his head as he tried to gore InuYasha. InuYasha was much smaller but also much more agile than the youkai. He leaped onto the bull's back and raised Tetsusaiga to strike.

The bull reared back, sending InuYasha sprawling to the ground. Kagome squelched a shriek as the bull wheeled around, lifting his enormous hoof in an effort to squash InuYasha. The hanyou rolled out of the way as the hoof descended. Kagome flinched as InuYasha stood and tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga.

The bull advanced. InuYasha hopped back again, lighting on a high tree branch. The bull swung his head at InuYasha, and though he tried to leap out of the way, one of the horns caught him, and InuYasha grunted as he flew through the air.

Kagome gasped and bit her lip as InuYasha landed hard. He was slow to get up, and the bull youkai was lumbering toward him. He broke into a gallop, lowering his head, and still InuYasha didn't rise.   Kagome didn't think. She shot to her feet, drawing out an arrow and nocking it back in her bow. "I don't think so!" she muttered to herself as she took aim.

InuYasha managed to push himself into a crouch. Holding Tetsusaiga before him with the blade resting on the ground, Kagome lowered her bow. ' _He's waiting_ ,' she thought.

The bull youkai was dangerously close to him now. Suddenly, InuYasha stood, swinging Tetsusaiga in a wide arc, cleaving through the air so sharply that it whistled. In one smooth movement, he brought the sword down, slamming it into the earth as he yelled, " _Kongousouha!_ "

Kagome turned her head to the side, squeezing her eyes closed as white light flashed from Tetsusaiga, and diamond shards shot out of it sword. She flinched as the bull screamed in agony, and she stumbled as the colossal beast fell to the ground.

She leaned back against the boulder as relief washed through her. She didn't feel like she could stand, and she wasn't sure why. She'd seen InuYasha take on youkai before. For some reason, though, this fight had frightened her more than most of the others.

She could hear his labored breathing where he still stood. Finally she heard him sheathe Tetsusaiga, and he sighed. His voice came to her where she sat, and she cringed at the anger in his tone. "You can come out now, Kagome. I know you're there."

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Before it is asked_ ** _:_
> 
> **_Question #1:_ ** _**Is Kagome INSANE? How can she not realize that she doesn't have the Shikon no Tama?  
> ** It is my belief that Kagome 'senses' the jewel and that yes, she can see it. Trouble is that she hasn't actually 'seen' InuYasha to know that he has the jewel, and she does sense that it is nearby so she doesn't worry. Add to that the preoccupation of being completely exhausted, and I think that's a reasonable explanation as to why she hasn't noticed that InuYasha has the jewel._
> 
>  
> 
> **_Question #2: Is InuYasha really singing to Kagome?  
> _ ** _Yes. Yes, he is._


	6. Reunion

Kagome squeezed her eyes closed tight and slowly stood. She bit her lower lip and waited for him to speak, knowing that whatever it was he had on his mind wasn't going to be even remotely pleasant at all.

"Are you _completely_ stupid?" he bellowed. She cringed inwardly though remained calm on the surface. "What am I saying? Of _course_ you are! You've been trailing me for days, didn't bring any food for yourself, almost got the jewel taken, and if you'd have missed that bull youkai, he'd have gone after you instead of me! Stupid girl! Why can't you _ever_ stay where you're safe?"

"I would have hit that bull youkai! He was huge, in case you didn't notice! I couldn't have _possibly_ missed him!"

Rounding on her with an incredulous glare, InuYasha sputtered a few moments before he managed coherent speech. "Damn it, Kagome! You could have been _killed_! You should have stayed in your time with your books and your exams _and the fucking jewel!_ "

Losing hold on her rising temper, Kagome made a face as she planted her hands on her hips and glowered back at the irate hanyou. "I'm not helpless, you know! I helped take down Naraku! Of course, you were too busy at the time to notice, weren't you? What is it you were doing then? Oh yeah . . . fawning all over Kikyou!"

The look on his face was enough to diffuse her anger. His ears drooped, and his hostility vanished. If she were trying to hurt him, she guessed she succeeded. With a grimace, she watched in silence as he turned away and stomped in the opposite direction.   "Come on," he called over his shoulder. "We're wasting time."

Kagome watched him walk away with as her conscience pricked her. ' _That was harsh. Maybe he was a little too mean, but he was only concerned, then I . . . I just had to bring up Kikyou, didn't I? Oh, what in the world is wrong with me?_ ' She ran to catch up with him and stole a sidelong glance at his face. She sighed. Did it matter that he'd screamed at her when he was just concerned for her safety?   She missed him, even if he had yelled at her. She'd known he would shout. She'd gotten off easy in comparison to the bellowing she figured he'd deal her.

Shaking her head slowly, she drew a deep breath. "InuYasha? I _am_ where I'm safest, you know. I'm with you."

He glanced at her but looked away before she caught his stare. After a moment of silence, he grabbed her hand and tossed her onto his back before breaking into a sprint through the forest.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha ripped the rabbit in half and shoved the larger portion under Kagome's nose. She jumped in surprise, eyes widening as she stared at the huge hunk of cooked meat. "Eat it," he stated. "I know you're hungry."

She took the meat without comment since the tone of voice he'd used was the one she didn't dare argue unless she wanted to bring the wrath of creation down on her own head and since it had taken nearly all day to get InuYasha out of his first bout of crabbiness, she didn't really want to be the cause of another one. ' _Hungry, maybe . . . but this could feed three of me_.' She frowned as he dropped the other half onto a pile of clean leaves beside the fire. "You're not hungry?" she asked.

"Keh. After you eat that, then you need to eat the other half, too."

Kagome nearly choked on the tiny bite she'd just taken. "I can't eat a whole rabbit," she remarked, "and that rabbit was huge!"

He sat down and folded his arms together, chin rising stubbornly, and he stated, "You haven't had a decent meal in days, wench, and I mean to see that you do now."

Kagome tried another tactic since reason wasn't working. "If you make me eat this whole thing, I'll throw up. If I throw something up, then I'll never eat it again."

He let the subject drop though he still looked quite disgruntled since he knew that she was telling the truth. He'd gotten her to try snake one day and whether it was the snake meat or the slight fever she'd also had, she vomited it up and would turn a sallow greenish shade if you as much as mentioned 'snake meat' to her now. "Hurry up, then," he grumbled, latching onto the next best complaint he could think of. "I can tell you're tired. I'm not waiting around for you to sleep half the day away tomorrow."

Kagome rolled her eyes and dropped the barely touched meat next to the remaining half of the rabbit. Rummaging around in her backpack for her towelettes, she frowned as she rifled through the contents just before her eyes widened in the early stages of panic. Dragging things out of the bag, Kagome grimaced when she figured out that the one thing that she knew ought to be in there was missing. ' _Oh . . . oh no!_ ' she thought wildly. ' _The Shikon no Tama . . . Where is it?_ ' Closing her eyes, Kagome tried to sense the jewel. She could feel its presence, could tell it was near, that it was safe. But where? It was close . . . and coming closer? ' _What?_ '

"Problem?" InuYasha asked dryly.  He had stalked over to stand in front of her, tapping his foot impatiently, and she hadn't realized he had moved at all.

' _Oh, he's going to yell at me . . . or worse! How could I_ lose _the Sacred Jewel?_ ' She slowly turned to face InuYasha and grimaced at his stance: arms crossed under the folds of his haori, the glint of suspicion already lighting the depths of his golden gaze, she knew—just _knew_ —that he was going to blow a fuse when admitted the truth . . . "The Shikon no Tama . . . I can sense that it's close by but . . . I can't find it," she admitted quietly, bracing for the screaming that was inevitable.

To her everlasting amazement, InuYasha snorted. "Damn straight it's close," he growled, digging into his haori. She blinked in surprise as he dangled the pink orb before her face for a second then dropped it into her lap.

Kagome couldn't look at him. She had to be the most miserable protector that the jewel had ever had. How could someone have stolen it right from under her nose? She grabbed the jewel and stood. "Here . . . you keep it. I . . . I'm sorry. I didn't realize . . ." she trailed off miserably. He didn't take the jewel. ' _Why isn't he screaming yet? At least about how worthless humans are?'_ With a sigh, she took his hand and laid the jewel in his palm. "I was so tired, I didn't know . . . if you hadn't been there—if you hadn't been able to stop the youkai—I'm sorry," she apologized, staring at her feet and telling herself that she'd better not cry. "Some jewel protector I am. I didn't even know it had been stolen!"

"Keh. Don't beat yourself up about it. It's fine. Just put it somewhere safe, okay?"

Once more the Shikon no Tama was dropped into her hands. Kagome shook her head slowly, blinking back the tears she had tried to hold off. "Why are you being so nice?"

His cheeks reddened slightly and he looked away, jamming his hands up his sleeves. "I can be nice."

"Sure, but not when I nearly lose the jewel . . . unless . . ." Slow understanding crept over Kagome, and her head swiveled to pin the hanyou with a glower. " _You_ stole it! You took the jewel from me!"

"Maybe," he grumbled. If it hadn't been for the deepening flush staining his cheeks, Kagome might have thought she was mistaken. InuYasha's eyes flashed as he glared back, and he snorted again.

"Baka! I was worried sick that you'd be angry that the jewel had been stolen, and I find out that you're the thief? _Osuwari!_ "

"Ungh!"

"What was it? 'Take it from Kagome because she's weak and stupid and can't protect the jewel?' You're such a _jerk! Osuwari!_ "

Fighting against the submission spell that still held him, InuYasha struggled to push himself up off the ground to glare at Kagome. "It's not _my_ fault you were so exhausted that you didn't know I was there! It's not _my_ fault you had to follow me when I told you not to! It's not _my_ fault that fucking serpent youkai nearly got to you _and_ the jewel, and if you think that he would have taken the jewel and been about his merry way, then you really _are_ _stupid!"_

Kagome snapped her mouth closed on the retort she had formed and paused to stare at InuYasha for a moment instead. He was staring murderously at the fire, cheeks still cherry-red, face smudged with dirt from the commands she'd thrown at him, "What serpent?"

"Keh. That first night a serpent youkai came after the jewel. I got rid of him, but . . ." he trailed off with a sigh, his ears flattening just a little. "When I caught him, he was almost at your cave. So I took the jewel so they'd come after me instead of you."

' _He was protecting me after all . . . and I . . ._ ' Kagome dug into her bag and retrieved a towelette then knelt down in front of the hanyou, putting the jewel in his hand as she concentrated on removing the trace reminders of what she'd done in anger.

"What are you doing?" he growled but didn't pull away as she lifted his chin with one hand and gently wiped the dirt off his face with the other.

"I'm sorry," she said, carefully avoiding his gaze.

"Yeah." His flush darkened as he blinked at her. "Me, too."

A strange undercurrent passed between them. Kagome stared at him, and he stared back. The irritation had left his expression, and he looked like he wanted something that she deliberately ignored. Suddenly, she shot to her feet and scooted over to her sleeping bag. Her heart was thundering in her ears, and in the protection of the blankets, she pressed her hand over her chest and swallowed hard.

' _He wanted to . . . kiss me?_ '

InuYasha sank down beside her and dropped the jewel onto her bedroll. "You protect it, okay?"

Slowly, she nodded, pushing her hand out of the blankets to take hold of the jewel. "And you'll protect me, right?"

"Keh. Go to sleep, wench."

She smiled as she closed her eyes.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"So where are we going?"

"Can you stop talking for five minutes?"

"If you tell me where we're going."

"Keh."

"Come on, InuYasha! You've got to tell me sooner or later. You might as well spill it. Where are we going, and what is it you're looking for?"

He sighed. "Ask me again, and I'll drop you."

"You would not." Still, he felt her hands tighten on his shoulders. He grinned.

Kagome was quiet for all of thirty seconds. "Let's play a game."

"I don't play games."

"It's an easy game," she coaxed.

"Kagome . . ." he warned, letting his grip loosen on her for just a second. She didn't fall for it.

"It's called 'word association'. I say a word, and you say the first word that comes to your mind, okay?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine."

"Jewel?"

"Shikon no Tama."

"Food?"

"Ramen."

She giggled. "I knew you'd say that. Okay . . . sky?"

"Blue."

"Family?"

"Bastard."

"Shippou?"

"Thump."

"Sango?"

"Slap."

"Miroku?"

"Deserves to be slapped."

"Kagome?"

"Never shuts up."

She laughed even louder. "Travel?"

"Forget it."

"InuYasha!" she complained.

He laughed. He couldn't help it. "Tetsusaiga."

She snorted. "How can you possibly associate yourself with your sword?"

"Easy, wench. Men _always_ associate themselves with their swords."

Kagome cleared her throat suddenly as she squirmed and dropped to the ground. "I think that's enough of that game."

"Oh yeah?" he asked casually.   She nodded. When he spared her a glance, it amused him to see that she was blushing. "So why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing!" she argued as her cheeks pinked up more. She lifted a hand to her face as though she was checking herself for signs of fever.

They walked on in silence awhile. He could tell there was something still on Kagome's mind. He had a feeling he knew what it was though he didn't ask.

Kagome sighed at last, breaking the silence as she turned to him and said, "Seriously, InuYasha. Where are we going?"

"If I answer, then you're not allowed to ask anything else for the rest of the day."

"That's hardly fair," she pouted.

"Them's my terms."

" . . . Fine."

He reached over and took the backpack from her. "Sesshoumaru's castle."

"Why?"

"No more questions, remember?"

The look on Kagome's face told him plainly that if she did swear, she would have done it then. Instead she heaved a loud sigh and fell in step beside him once more. He chuckled at her disgruntled expression. Eyebrows drawn together, nose slightly wrinkled, and lips pursed, he couldn't help himself. She looked like a pouting pup.

She shoved him. "You don't play fair."

"Keh! You're lucky you got that much of an answer."

She dug around in the backpack and shoved an energy bar under his nose. He made a face and turned his head to the side. "Gah! Get that away from me."

"It's good for you," she remarked as she dropped it back into the bag and zipped it closed.

The rustle of the wrapper told him that she was eating one of those disgusting things, and he snorted. "Lots of things are good for me. Doesn't mean I'll eat it."

Kagome grinned. "Yes, well, I'm hungry, and since I can't _ask_ anymore questions for the day, then I can't _ask_ you to stop so I can eat."

"We can stop if you're ready," he offered. "There's a pond up ahead."

She squealed suddenly. He flattened his ears against his head at the sound. "A bath! A _real_ bath!"

InuYasha shook his head. He really should have known . . .

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Castle on the Cliff

"This is heaven—I mean _really_ heaven! I'm telling you, I don't think I could _possibly_ be happier than I am right now!"

InuYasha growled and shook his head. ' _This is hell—I mean_ , really _hell. I think I might die, and_ then _we'll see how fucking happy she is . . ._ ' He could kick himself for mentioning the pond. He deserved to burn in hell for putting himself through this. Kagome was splashing around and obviously having a very nice bath. He was pretty sure he was going to die. "Are you done yet?" he hollered without turning his head.

"In a minute," she called back. He sighed as an exaggerated splash echoed through his mind. "You should take a bath later! The water's a little cold but once you get used to it, it's fantastic."

He glared straight ahead and tightened his arms around Tetsusaiga. ' _Cold might be good_ ,' he allowed grudgingly. "Quit playing and get out of there," he snarled. He wasn't sure when he had started hating Kagome's almost-religious baths. He'd never actually _liked_ them at all. Her fastidious desire to be clean was fine. He just hated having to sit here and listen to her while knowing what she was doing and, more precisely, what she was—or wasn't—wearing.   That he'd accidentally seen her during her baths a few times . . . well, those memories certainly didn't help him at all.

Of course, _she_ was completely oblivious to the effect she had on him, and after last night . . .

" _What are you doing?" he growled. 'She's . . . she's wiping my face?' Too stunned to stop her, he could only stare in confusion as she gently rubbed the dirt away_.

" _I'm sorry_."

" _Yeah . . . me, too_."

 _A savage desire to reach out for her assailed him. He wanted to touch her, to prove to himself that she was real. Too often he'd felt it, the yearning ache to have her near. Transcending physical, it was the simple comfort of her laughter that had the power to bind him to her. She understood him, knew the ugly things about him, and she trusted him anyway. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Lips slightly parted, she gasped quietly, so quietly that she probably hadn't heard the sound at all. He'd never wanted anything quite as badly as he wanted to kiss her. He_ knew _she knew it . . . and she ran away to hide in the blankets of her bedroll_.

He sighed, absently thankful that no youkai had chosen that time to attack. He was so lost in that memory that he'd have been an easy target. He frowned and straightened his back. ' _Baka!_ ' he berated himself. ' _Your first task—your_ only _task—is to protect Kagome. Quit thinking about other stuff, especially when she doesn't feel the same way or you'll just end up miserable—and alone. She's your friend—your_ best _friend, and . . . and that's got to be enough_.'

' _Take care of her._ '

He would. Even if Kikyou hadn't asked him to do it, he would have.

"If you don't hurry, dinner's going to be burned," he remarked.

"All right, I'm getting out," she answered. "No peeking!"

"Do I _ever_ peek?"

"I don't know. _Do_ you?"

"Keh!"

She laughed. He heard her splashing around, and her voice was moving closer to the shore. His ears twitched, catching the soft sounds of her movements. ' _Don't look, baka! She'll make you eat dirt if she catches you_.'

"Yeah, I guess it's nothing you haven't seen before," she commented lightly.

"I've told you before, I've never _seen_ anything," he stated.

"What about in Togenkyo? You don't _remember_ seeing me then?"

He nearly whined as the image flashed through his head, of Kagome in that tub in the basement of the sage's dwelling. Completely naked and just happy to see that he was still alive, she hadn't even realized that he could see all of her until he had started stuttering. "Keh! I was human then. I don't remember."

She flopped down on the ground next to him, fully dressed and properly covered. It didn't help. He could still smell the dampness on her skin, the disturbing scent of those foreign soaps she used . . . "So . . . when you're human you don't remember anything? That's what you're trying to say? You think I'm buying that?"

He didn't answer. Shooting to his feet, he stomped back toward the camp and leaped into a tree, set on ignoring Kagome even if it killed him.

She wasn't laughing as she wandered back into camp but her amusement was obvious, and she set her bag down before kneeling by the fire to check on their dinner. Tilting her head back, she blinked at him, eyes sparkling and happy. "Are you going to come down to eat?"

When he didn't answer, she sighed and flipped open her pocket knife. Interesting contraption, he had to admit. Not nearly as useful as his claws, of course, but not bad for a human pathetic human.

She settled back with a small portion of food. He watched with a frown as she quietly ate.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, her voice soft. She was gazing up at him again with unmasked concern in her gaze.

He sighed and dropped out of the tree to scoop her up and leap back to his perch again. He pointed at the western horizon. She gasped softly. Silhouetted against the rising moon stood Sesshoumaru's castle. Even from this distance, the structure was intimidating. Immense, cold, commanding, it stood alone on a tall cliff.

Kagome stared in awe. "That's where we're going," she remarked. InuYasha nodded. "And this thing you're looking for? Is it there?"

"No. It _was_ there. Myouga said it was stolen long ago, but he didn't know who took it. I thought maybe Sesshoumaru might know something. I doubt it. Even if does, he won't tell me unless I beat it out of him . . . and I don't think I'd much care if it came to that." He stared at Kagome for a few moments and finally shook his head slowly. "I don't even know where to _start_ looking," he admitted.

Kagome absorbed that in silence as the two stared at Sesshoumaru's castle. She sighed softly, and he glanced down when he felt her cheek come to rest against his shoulder. "I don't know what it is you're looking for. I don't know where to tell you to start searching, either. I do want to help you, if you'll let me."

"Keh. Do I have a choice? You've already followed me once."

She smiled at his tone. His words, as always, were gruff, but his voice had been gentle, touched with a hint of gratefulness. She understood the things he'd never been able to say.

"How long will it take us to get there?" she asked, nodding toward the castle on the horizon.

InuYasha crossed his arms under his haori sleeves, careful not to disturb Kagome. "Two days."

"Hmm."

She was almost asleep. He couldn't help the little grin that surfaced as she snuggled closer to him. "Come on. You can't sleep in a tree."

She smiled slightly. "You do."

"Keh."

"Just a little longer?" He turned and pulled her into his arms. She let her head rest against his chest, and she sighed softly. "Is this why you sit up in trees?"

He stared at the top of her head with a slight smile twitching the corners of his lips. "Yeah."

She giggled, but her voice was groggy when she spoke. "Dogs don't climb trees."

"Says who?"

She laughed a little harder. "I can't see your brother sleeping in a tree."

' _He would have, if he had to run for his life from youkai_ ,' InuYasha thought with a grimace. "Nah. Stupid bastard would fall on his ass."

"This is nice."

' _You have no idea ._ . .' he thought with an inward sigh. "Is it?"

"I could sleep here all night."

"You'd fall on _your_ ass."

"I wouldn't," she shot back with a stifled yawn. "You wouldn't let me fall."

' _No_ ,' he thought as he wrapped the sleeves of his haori tighter around her and smiled as he buried his nose in her hair. ' _No, I wouldn't_.'

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome arched her back and stretched then choked out a small cry as she nearly lost her balance. Arms wrapped around her and held onto her. She grasped the clawed hands tightly and peeked down.

"What the hell are you doing? You're not a bird, wench."

She swallowed hard. "It looks a lot higher in the daytime."

"Keh!" He lifted her and dropped to the ground. "I suppose you want to eat before we leave."

She frowned at his back as he stomped off. He'd been so different last night. Apparently, the InuYasha she was used to was back. She sighed. ' _Come to think of it, he's been acting a little weird lately. What's gotten into him?'_

Making quick work of rolling up her unused bedroll and packing everything away again, she was sitting with her calculus book when InuYasha crashed through the brush. "You make enough noise to wake the dead, InuYasha," she commented without looking up.

"You ready?"

Kagome stuck her book back into the bag and waited while InuYasha doused the fire.

"Where did you go?" she asked as they started out again.

He didn't answer, and he didn't look at her. "I thought I heard something."

"Did you?"

"Nope." She slowed her step and frowned at InuYasha's odd behavior. Noticing that she had fallen behind, he stopped and turned to stare at her. "Something wrong?"

She forced a bright smile. "No, everything's fine . . . you're the one acting strange."

He started walking again, leaving Kagome to catch up with him. "I thought I smelled Sesshoumaru," he finally admitted. "I couldn't find him, but he's been through here recently."

"How recently?"

InuYasha shrugged. "In the last few days."

She didn't miss the reluctance in his tone. He really didn't want to go to Sesshoumaru's castle . . . "Do we have to go to the castle? You said that this thing was stolen, right? So why are we going there?"

"Sesshoumaru might know something. I wouldn't put it past him."

"Is this thing valuable?"

"Depends on what you consider 'valuable'."

She frowned at his enigmatic answers. It wasn't like him to be so pensive. She stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Do _you_ consider it valuable?"

The wash of emotions that crossed his features startled Kagome. Anger, reluctance, stubbornness, irritation, fear, all mixed together as he glared at her. "I couldn't care less."

He turned again and stomped away. Kagome bit her lip as she watched him go. He was lying, and she knew it. Whatever it was that he was looking for meant more to him than he wanted to admit, even to himself. But why would it frighten him?

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha hissed as the antiseptic wash Kagome sprayed onto the wound stung. "Sorry!" she said with a wince.

"Just hurry," he bit out, keeping his teeth clenched.

She snapped the lid back on the spray and carefully placed a bandage over the laceration on the back of his shoulder. "There."

He pulled his haori back in place, carefully not to disturb Kagome's handiwork.

Kagome repacked her first aid kit and stuck it in the backpack after checking to make sure the Shikon no Tama was still safe. "We should have purified this already," she remarked, more to herself than to InuYasha as she dropped the jewel back into her bag. "Then we wouldn't be getting attacked as often."

"It's just a scratch," InuYasha said with a snort as he carefully stretched out on his side.

Kagome rolled her eyes. The laceration had come from a poison frog youkai's tongue. He'd sensed the Shikon no Tama and thought that he could take on InuYasha, just because InuYasha was 'only half-youkai'. The frog had gotten a good taste of Tetsusaiga, and now he was dust in the wind.

"Still, if we purify the jewel, then it'll be gone, and—"

"We can't, not yet."

She stared at him for a few moments. He was dragging his claws across the ground in his typical 'I'm Thinking' manner. She stirred the stew on the fire. "Do you need some aspirin?"

"Keh."

He'd gotten more and more edgy as they traveled. It seemed like the closer they got to Sesshoumaru's castle, the more irrational InuYasha became. As though the thing he was searching for had the power to harm him, he acted more like a man on his way to the gallows than someone his age ought to act. She wanted to help him. She always wanted to help him. He never let her, not willingly. Why?

She handed him a bowl of stew and a set of chopsticks before retrieving her own bowl and utensils. InuYasha pushed his food around. "It's a book."

"What's a book?"

He sighed and set the bowl aside. "This thing I'm looking for . . . it's a book."

"What sort of book?"

"A fucking book that never should have been written."

Kagome could only watch as InuYasha shot to his feet and leapt into a tree. She knew what that meant: discussion closed.

Shaking her head slightly as she frowned up at the stubborn hanyou, she couldn't help but wonder just why he was acting so strangely about the entire situation. Surely this book wasn't really such a horrible thing. He behaved as though he thought that it really could hurt him.

She sighed quietly and poked the fire with a long stick, watching as tiny sparks flew up into the sky and burned themselves out. A book? What sort of book would have the power to upset him so badly? Kagome watched InuYasha as he stared off into the distance. He didn't come down the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Sesshoumaru's Stronghold

"It isn't here."

Deliberately scraping his claws over the polished cherry wood table, InuYasha glared at his brother as he tried to keep control of his rapidly rising temper. "I _know_ it isn't here, you bastard. Do you have any idea who took it?"

Sesshoumaru lifted his gaze to pin him with a warning. "InuYasha, if I knew who took it, he would be dead by now. No one enters This Sesshoumaru's domain and steals anything, even if it _is_ _your_ legacy."

"Have I told you lately how much I hate you? Because if I haven't, consider yourself told."

"The feeling is mutual, baka," Sesshoumaru remarked coldly.

InuYasha turned to leave. Sesshoumaru's voice stopped him. "Why is it you seek the book now?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"Be not a fool, InuYasha. It _doesn't_ matter. I am merely curious."

"Yeah? Well, you and your curiosity can go straight to hell."

He headed out of the castle, purposefully keeping his gaze straight ahead. He hated this place. He'd _always_ hated this place. The sooner he found Kagome and put some distance between himself and this place, the better off he'd be.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"What do you do for fun here, Rin?"

"Sometimes I play with Jaken-sama in the gardens. I go swimming when it gets too hot, and . . ."

Kagome nodded as she pretended to listen to the child. She glanced back at the huge doors of the castle and stifled a sigh. InuYasha had flat-out refused to let her go with him to speak to Sesshoumaru. Instead, Jaken had led her out here to take tea with Rin. ' _Maybe the discussion is going well_ ,' she mused with a wry grin. ' _At least the castle is still standing, so I doubt InuYasha has had to resort to threatening his brother . . ._ '

She had tried all yesterday and last evening to get InuYasha to tell her what sort of book he was looking for. InuYasha gave the word 'stubborn' a whole new meaning.

" _A history?_ "

" _Keh_."

" _Some sort of magic scroll?_ "

" _It's a_ book, _Kagome_."

" _What sort of book?_ "

" _Drop it, will you?_ "

" _But_ \--"

" _Drop it or I'll take you back to the village and have that useless monk and the old woman use their Ofuda to seal you in a hut till I get back_."

" _You would not!_ "

 _He stopped and glowered down at her, arms folded over his chest, eyes deadly serious. One eyebrow arched, and he said, "Care to try me?_ "

She had backed down. She had a feeling that if she had pushed any more, he might have done it out of spite.

With a sigh, Kagome dropped all pretenses of paying attention to the child and stared at the house with a frown. ' _Come on, InuYasha . . . what's going on in there?_ '

"Are you and InuYasha-sama mated?"

Kagome choked on her tea and wiped her chin on her napkin as she cast Rin a quick glance. Drawn rudely out of her reverie, she coughed as she felt her face explode in embarrassed flames. "Wh-Wh-What?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama says that InuYasha-sama is going to take you as his mate."

"We haven't discussed that," Kagome explained, feeling a little queasy. "Sesshoumaru told you this?"

Rin nodded in exuberance. "And he says you'll have lots of pups and hopefully they won't be bakas like InuYasha-sama." The girl's eyes grew round in alarm, and her cheeks reddened as she rushed on to say, "Not that I think InuYasha-sama is a baka . . . I mean—"

Kagome forced a smile, sure that her cheeks were just as red as Rin's.

"Kagome?"

She made a face and turned slowly. InuYasha was staring at the ground, red-faced, arms crossed over his chest. It was obvious that he had overheard part of that conversation. Kagome only wished she knew how much.

She got up, dropping her napkin on the table as she smoothed her skirt and smiled at Rin. "Bye, Rin. Be safe."

"Bye, Kagome!" Rin said, hopping out of her seat to throw her arms around the miko. "I will be! Sesshoumaru-sama watches out for me!"

Kagome laughed and ruffled the girl's hair then stepped over to InuYasha as she dragged her backpack straps onto her shoulders. He pulled her onto his back and set out at a sprint.

She didn't say anything for awhile. She could feel the tension slowly ebbing out of him as they traveled. As though the castle, itself, was enough to set him on edge, Kagome wondered again why he seemed so reluctant to be there. He'd faced Sesshoumaru down countless times in the past. In the end, they'd even fought side by side against Naraku. It made her wonder if it really was the place, more than Sesshoumaru, that bothered him.

It was also apparent to her that InuYasha hadn't found out any more about where the book might be than he had known to start with. She didn't press him for more details. If he wanted to talk, he would, right?

There was a rhythm to his movements as he ran, a certain cadence that lulled her. She laid her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She might not always be able to read him, but she knew his heart, knew that he was a good person despite the gruff exterior and the callous words. She also knew that she never felt as safe as she did when she was with him, and for her, that was enough.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome awoke to a delicious scent. She rolled over on her sleeping bag and opened her eyes to see InuYasha kneeling down by the fire. He was stirring something in the pot, and he glanced over at her as he dropped the lid back in place. "Good nap?"

She sat up, shifting her legs to the side as she rubbed her eyes with balled-up fists. "I don't remember falling asleep," she admitted.

He put his hands down on the ground and leaned forward slightly. "You fell asleep when I was carrying you."

She blinked in surprise and stared at him. His ears kept twitching, as though he was expecting something to come busting into their camp. He stared into the dancing flames with an inscrutable frown furrowing his brow. ' _He spread my sleeping bag so I wouldn't have to lie on the ground_ ,' she thought with a smile, ' _and he made dinner . . . but he looks so preoccupied, so upset . . ._ '

"Thanks," she said, drawing his gaze back to her face. He ducked his head a little lower, and his ears flattened. "InuYasha?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I didn't say anything like that to Sesshoumaru," he grumbled. "I have no fucking idea why he said anything to Rin about it."

"I didn't think you had," she assured him. Had he been worried that she was upset with him over that? He didn't look reassured. She bit her lower lip. Apparently, he was. She forced an overly-bright smile. "It's fine, InuYasha. I didn't think anything about it."

She knew that was the wrong thing to say as soon as it was out of her mouth. He shot her an inscrutable look and slowly stood. "InuYasha . . ."

He walked away without a word.

' _Good going, Kagome. Why don't you go osuwari him a few hundred times while you're at it? If you wanted to make him feel bad, you just succeeded_.'

With a sigh, Kagome choked down dinner. It was good. She wasn't hungry, and it could have been dirt on her taste buds. The longer he was gone, the worse she felt. By the time she finished eating, tears were stinging her eyes.

She stared in the direction he'd departed in and sighed.

Finally she retrieved her school book and covered up under her blankets to study by firelight. ' _Might as well do something useful. Surely InuYasha will come back soon._ '

With another heavy sigh, she opened the calculus book.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha glared at the moonlight reflecting off the water's surface. ' _What were you really hoping she'd say, baka? That she wanted to be your mate? How ignorant are you, really? Kagome doesn't want to be with you. Why would she? You have nothing to offer her, and what sort of life would it be? Battling youkai all your lives? Fine, for you. You're used to it. But Kagome . . . You're a hanyou, remember? No one would want to be with a hanyou. No one_ chooses _a half-breed._ '

He sighed. "Kagome deserves better than me."

His gaze fell to the water beside him, and he blinked at his reflection. ' _Fucking dog ears_ ,' he thought with a grimace.

Kagome's words echoed through his head. ' _He sure is cute . . . if you like puppy-ears . . ._ ' How many times had she tried to mess with his ears? He slammed his fist into the water and destroyed the hateful vision.

Slowly, InuYasha rose and walked back toward the camp. ' _She's my friend, if nothing else. I've got that, and it's enough._ '

She left the pan near the edge of the fire to keep the food warm. He stopped beside her and knelt down. Sleeping with her cheek on her folded arms, she sighed softly as her lips twitched into a small grin. He couldn't help but smile back as he carefully slid the schoolbook out from under her hand and put it away in her backpack.

He pulled Tetsusaiga out of his waistband and sank down beside her again. He touched her hair, slowly, gently. He jerked his hand away, scowling at his claws. Next to Kagome's blatantly delicate features, the claws had seemed so violent, so horrifying . . .

"Uh?" he muttered, suddenly slapping his neck. Myouga gasped as he fell down InuYasha's haori and landed on his leg. "Myouga? What do you want?"

Myouga sat up shakily and waved his arms in greeting. "InuYasha-sama! It's so nice to taste you again!"

"Cut the crap, Myouga."

"Have you been to see your brother? Did he have any answers for you?"

InuYasha snorted. "Keh! You should _know_ he didn't. He didn't know a damn thing about the thief."

Myouga nodded. "I see. So where will you look now?"

"Didn't you hear me? I don't know where to look. I tried. I'm done. Finished."

Myouga hopped up and down, waving his arms around frantically. "You can't give up! You _must_ have that book! It was meant to happen!"

"It don't even matter," InuYasha went on. "It's just a stupid book. It won't change anything. I told you that. Leave it alone."

Myouga sighed and glanced over, head cocked to the side, as though he had finally realized that Kagome was there beside InuYasha.

"Don't wake her up," InuYasha warned. Myouga made an irritated noise that InuYasha ignored.

"What about Katosan?"

The hanyou frowned. "Who?"

"Katosan. He might know something. Besides that, you're close. It wouldn't hurt to ask him."

"Why would he help me?"

Myouga shook his head. "Katosan has been loyal to your family for years, InuYasha-sama. If anyone would help, he'd be the one."

InuYasha drew a deep breath and stared at Myouga for a long second. "All right, Myouga. Tell me how to find him."

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Twenty Questions

"Do you remember the day we met?"

InuYasha cast Kagome a sidelong glance as they walked along the narrow path through the dense forest. After barely speaking this morning, it was the first full sentence she'd used, and that was enough to worry him since he normally couldn't get her to shut up. "Yeah."

"I've always meant to ask you . . . what woke you up?"

"Keh!"

She frowned. He could feel the intensity of her stare penetrating into his temple. "'Keh?' What does that mean?"

"It means that you ought to know."

"If I knew, why would I ask?"

"It means," he began slowly, "that you brought me back."

She shook her head, as though she didn't understand. "How did you know I was there?"

Thinking back over time to the day that had changed everything, how could he explain to her, what he had known, in terms she would understand? He had been dead, hadn't he? Yet he wasn't alive; he wasn't aware. He hadn't thought, hadn't felt, hadn't sensed a thing for those fifty years. He also hadn't changed. In his place, suspended by Kikyou's sacred arrow on Goshinboku—the God Tree—the Time Tree, he'd just stopped _being_ . . . "It was like I heard you calling for help," he said slowly. "Keh! I should have known then, that you were nothing but trouble. Pathetic human," he scoffed. The dense canopy of trees blocked the sun. In the thick shadows of the forest, Kagome glowed, radiant and brilliant. ' _Beautiful human_ ,' he thought with an inward smile.

"This pathetic human freed you from the arrow," Kagome reminded him. He didn't miss the teasing in her tone. "Best you remember that, Mr. Dog-Man." She rubbed her sweater-clad arms as though she was cold and stared up at the trees with a sigh. "Where are we going?"

He shrugged off the fire rat haori and reshouldered the backpack as he shoved the clothing under her nose, deliberately ignoring her question. "Put that on before you get sick."

She blinked quickly as she stared at the garment. "Are you sure?" she asked as she hesitantly reached out to take it.

"Keh! I don't have time to run you back to the village," he explained.

She was quiet for a moment. Her sigh was so soft that he almost missed it as she dragged the haori over her shoulders. "Yeah," she agreed, "I wouldn't want to slow us down."

He made a face. ' _Why can't you_ ever _say what you mean, baka? Stupid_ , stupid, stupid!' He stopped suddenly and turned to face her.

She stopped, too, and shot him a questioning look. She wasn't smiling. She didn't have to. Her eyes glowed, sparkled, and he knew that expression. ' _It makes me happy, to be with you_.' He reached over and gently tugged her hair out from under the fire rat haori. His hand lingered, touching her hair. She grabbed his wrist, clung to him.

In that singular moment, she was the most precious thing in the world to him. He saw something growing in her eyes, something warm and beautiful, something that touched him, something that he didn't dare hope for. ' _She . . . she wants . . . ?_ ' He swallowed hard. ' _No . . . she can't . . . she doesn't . . ._ ' He quickly turned away and started walking again. Kagome sighed and fell in step beside him. ' _You're seeing things_.'

"Warm enough?" he asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.

"What? Oh, uh, yes, thank you," she answered in an equally cautious fashion. "Are you sure you're not cold?"

"Keh."

She giggled. "I forgot. Big, strong hanyou needs no coat."

"Damn right. Only you weak humans need that."

"Well, this weak human is grateful, anyway."

He didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't answer. They continued along the overgrown path in silence, lost in thoughts all their own that still connected them in hushed whispers that neither could understand.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"So who's this 'Katosan'?" Kagome asked as she washed the dinner dishes in the stream.

InuYasha sat on a rock, legs crossed, arms shoved into the sleeves of his haori with Tetsusaiga held protectively against his chest. "Myouga says he may know something about the book."

She paused with a tin plate dangling from her hand as she stared over her shoulder. InuYasha caught the look but ignored it. He _knew_ that look. She was about to launch into a round of Twenty Questions, none of which he wanted to answer. He grimaced as she fired off the first question. "What's so important about this book?"

"Not a damn thing."

"Why go to the trouble of finding it?"

"Dunno. It's just a book."

"Why do you need it so badly?"

"I don't."              

"Then why are we looking for it?"

"Nothing better to do."

"You're an awful liar, you know?"

"So you've said."

"And Sesshoumaru didn't know anything?"

"Nope, useless bastard."

"He _is_ your brother. You don't like him at all, do you?"

"Not even a little."

"Have you ever gotten along with him?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Have you ever gotten along with _anyone_?"

"Keh."

"Maybe we could ask Miroku. He knows a lot of weird stuff. What do you think?"

"Useless monk's only good for grabbing butts."

"Don't you miss the others at all?"

"Do you want me to answer that?"

"Don't you?"

"A little. A _very_ little."

Her chin dropped as she shook off the plate and she studiously kept her face down as she asked, "Are you sorry I followed you?"

"Keh," he replied. "Can't get rid of you. I've tried, remember?"

She giggled. "Poor InuYasha . . . I could have left you stuck to Goshinboku. Would that have been better?"

"Of course."

Her giggle escalated into a full-blown laugh. "I could re-pin you . . ." she offered generously. "As soon as we get back . . . then I get free access to your ears."

"Keh."

"So what's in this mysterious book?"

"The secrets of life and death."

"Seriously, InuYasha. What's so important?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Then why do you want it?"

"I told you, I don't."

"What'll you do with it when you find it?"

He cracked his knuckles. "Sharpen my claws on it."

"Then why look for it?"

"Because no one needs to see it."

"But _why?_ "

"I told you. It shouldn't have been written."

"But—"

He stood abruptly. "You got your twenty questions, wench. Come on."

He heard her frustrated sigh as she gathered up the clean dishes and followed him back to camp. She deliberately ignored him while she put the items back into her bottomless backpack and dug out her school book.

"What are you doing?" he asked, squatting beside her.

She spared him a cursory glance before turning her back toward him just enough to let him know that she needed quiet so she could study.

"You're in the middle of the forest, Kagome. Do you really need to do that now?"

"Shh."

InuYasha sputtered indignantly, back straightening as he drew away with a shocked expression on his face. "Did you _shush_ me, wench?"

"Shh!" she repeated without so much as glancing at him.

He dug his claws against the ground with a glower at the offending text book. "Keh!"

She finally did look at him. His satisfaction only lasted until she burst into laughter. "Stop pouting, InuYasha. I've got an important exam coming up. I've got to study, so shhhh!"

                                                                

"I don't pout!" he remarked with a loud snort. Kagome giggled harder. He shot to his feet and stomped to the other side of the fire, drawing Tetsusaiga. He closed his eyes for a moment, then grinned as he yelled, " _Kongousouha!"_ and brought the sword slamming into the earth. Kagome yelped behind him, and his grin widened.

"Put that away!" she scolded. "You're wrecking the forest for no good reason."

"There was a mouse, and you hate mice."

Kagome rolled her eyes and dropped her gaze back to the book in her lap.

InuYasha flopped down to sharpen Tetsusaiga with a very loud, very pronounced sigh. Kagome continued studying, muttering under her breath as she tried to memorize the things in the book that were _obviously_ much more interesting than someone who kept her head on her shoulders daily.

' _Stupid girl! Who cares if she's more interested in stupid paper than she is in me?_ ' His ears drooped. ' _I do, damn it_.' He glanced up at her again, narrowing his eyes as he stifled a snort. ' _Did she follow me just so she could study that fucking book? Keh!_ '

"Shouldn't you go to sleep now?" he asked, unable to keep the belligerence out of his tone.

"In a bit. I'm not tired yet."

He stood up and jammed Tetsusaiga into the sheath. He glared at her, sitting there all calmly, as though there wasn't a thing wrong in the world. ' _I can't believe she's ignoring me!_ ' he fumed.

"If you don't stop glaring, your face will freeze like that," Kagome remarked without looking up.

"Keh!"

She reached over and located her water bottle by feel, managing to open and drink half of it without taking her attention of the book. He could always toss the offending book into the fire . . . and be osuwari-ed straight into the center of the earth. ' _Think, baka! How do you get her to stop staring at that damn book?_ '

InuYasha considered that a moment longer. ' _Beaten by a fucking book_ ,' he thought. ' _Unless_ . . .'

Very slowly and deliberately, InuYasha dropped his arms and wandered back over to Kagome, sinking down beside her. "Okay," he said mulishly.

"Okay?" she repeated. She did, however, look away from his nemesis.

He lowered his head, as much to hide his triumphant smirk as it was to offer her the one thing he knew she'd never be able to resist. "Go ahead."

Her tone was suspicious, reluctant. "And do what?"

"Just remember, wench. They're sensitive."

He peeked up at her but kept his chin lowered. She was smiling, and she let the book fall off her lap as her fingers latched onto his ears.

She didn't see his little victorious grin.

' _I win_.'

 

 

 

 

 

 


	10. The Other Side

Kagome stared at the calculus book without seeing anything that was written on the page as InuYasha restlessly stomped around the fire. She hid her grin. He really hated to be ignored. She knew he did. ' _So predictable,_ ' she thought as she suppressed a giggle. ' _The Diamond Spear Blast was a bit much. Still, it's nice to know that he likes my company, even if he doesn't admit it_.'

She almost did smile when she caught a glimpse of his pouting face. ' _Does he have any idea just how cute he really is?_ ' she wondered. She sighed. No, she supposed he didn't. ' _He's been told he's nothing but a worthless half-breed for so long . . . does he believe it?_ '

She hadn't meant to fall asleep while studying last night. She had wanted to explain to InuYasha that she wasn't trying to hurt his feelings when she'd told him that she hadn't been upset by Rin's strange line of questioning. He'd been so upset over it that she had only been trying to make sure that he knew she didn't blame him for it. Somehow it had gotten confused, and she'd ended up doing more damage than good at the time.

Then earlier today . . .

" _Put that on before you get sick," he said as he shoved his haori under her nose_.

" _Are you sure?" He'd offered it to her so many times before, but always in times of danger, when she needed the extra protection, or when her own clothes were destroyed or taken, like in Togenkyo. She could only remember him giving it to her out of anything other than necessity a few times . . ._

" _Keh! I don't have time to run you back to the village," he explained_.

'Duh, Kagome. Did you really think he'd let you wear this just because? Don't be an idiot.' _She sighed softly. "Yeah," she agreed, "I wouldn't want to slow us down_."

 _He glared at the trees ahead. She was starting to think that maybe something was about to attack even though she didn't sense anything when he stopped suddenly and turned to face her. She stopped, too, and shot him a questioning look._ 'Amazing, the way his eyes sparkle,' _she mused as she stared at him_. 'Like liquid gold . . .'

 _He reached over and gently tugged her hair out from under the fire rat haori. His hand lingered, touching her hair. She grabbed his wrist, staring at him, willing him to read her mind._ 'Kiss me, InuYasha . . . I won't run this time . . .'

 _He swallowed hard. His gaze narrowed, dropping to her lips, and for just a second, Kagome had thought, had hoped, that he would. He quickly turned away and started walking again. Kagome wanted to scream or throw something at him but sighed instead as she fell in step beside him_.

She was drawn back to reality as InuYasha dragged his claws over Tetsusaiga's blade to sharpen it. She hated that noise, and he knew it. Like fingernails on a chalkboard, the sound of his claws grating over the steel fang was just as bad, in her opinion. Still she kept her head lowered and stared at the page without actually seeing it.

' _How dull can it possibly be?_ ' she wondered as she tried to block the nerving sound out. She clenched her teeth together and concentrated on the book in her lap.

"Shouldn't you go to sleep now?"

Kagome hid her amusement at his sulky tone. "In a bit. I'm not tired yet."

He stood up and jammed Tetsusaiga into the sheath. Kagome peeked up through her lashes and caught the pouting glower on his face and did smile.

"If you don't stop glaring, your face will freeze like that," she remarked, remembering the few times her mother had said the same thing to her.

"Keh!"

She reached over and located her water bottle by feel, managing to open and drink half of it without taking her attention of the book. She nearly choked at the mutinous look on the hanyou's face as he continued to glare at the textbook. It would have been comical, if she hadn't been worried that he really would grab the book and chuck it on the fire. From the look on his face she could tell it was exactly what he was thinking about doing.

Very slowly and deliberately, InuYasha dropped his arms and wandered back over to Kagome, sinking down beside her. "Okay," he said mulishly.

"Okay?" she repeated, giving up on her studies when she heard the sadness under his otherwise stubborn tone.

He lowered his head. She blinked in surprise when he said, "Go ahead."

Her tone was suspicious, reluctant. "And do what?"

He sighed. "Just remember, wench. They're sensitive."

Understanding dawned on her as she let the book slide off her lap. She gently grasped his fuzzy ears and rubbed as a smile broke over her features. He sighed again and leaned in closer to her. Kagome's grin widened.

' _I win_.'

Suddenly he pulled away. Kagome didn't have long enough to be disappointed, though, because InuYasha stretched out and let his head fall into her lap. "Continue," he remarked almost grudgingly after settling himself comfortably.

Kagome giggled as she resumed the ear-rubbing. He sighed and let his eyes drift closed. She almost thought he had gone to sleep when he broke into a low rumbling noise. "InuYasha?"

The noise stopped abruptly but he didn't open his eyes. "Hmm?"

"What was that sound?"

"Dunno," he murmured. "More."

She smiled. ' _It comforts him_ ,' she thought as the rumble started again, ' _and that sound . . . comforts me_.'

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

' _Touch . . . nice,_ ' he thought vaguely he fought to stay asleep. ' _Ears_ . . .'

InuYasha blinked as he lost the battle and stared into Kagome's smiling eyes. "Morning," she remarked as her fingers continued to rub his ears.

' _I could get used to this_ ,' he thought as he stifled a yawn. Her greeting slowly sank in, and with a mental curse, he sat up quickly. "Morning?" he echoed stupidly. "What the hell do you mean, 'morning'?"

Kagome's eyebrows drew together in confusion as she slowly stood up. "Isn't that normally what one says when they wake up?"

"I was _asleep_?" he croaked incredulously. "What the fuck did you do that for?"

"Do what? I didn't do anything."

InuYasha shot to his feet and made quick work of smothering what was left of their fire with dirt. "If it hadn't been for your weird obsession with my ears, this wouldn't have happened," he pointed out.

Kagome straighten up from folding up her blankets. "Me? You're the one who came over shoving your head under my nose because you were jealous of my math book!"

"I wasn't jealous! I don't _get_ jealous! There's nothing to _be_ jealous of! It's just a fucking _book_!"

She stood up, hands on hips, and she marched over to glare up at him. "Well for someone who wasn't jealous, you sure _acted_ like you were," she huffed.

"Keh! I _did_ not because I _was_ not, bitch!"

"I don't understand you," she finally said. "Can't you be consistent?"

"Consistent how?" he snapped.

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the ground between them. When she slowly lifted her chin again, she looked like she was close to tears. InuYasha flinched inwardly. "Shouldn't we get moving?"

He watched helplessly as she turned and trudged down the path that led to the stream. Shoulders slumped and arms still crossed over her chest as though she was trying to protect herself, he shook his head. _'Great, baka. You're mad because you had a decent night's rest, and what do you do? Yeah, you took it out on Kagome, as if it was her intention to put you to sleep like that_.'

He sighed and tempered the desire to take a swing at the nearest tree. If it hadn't been so incredibly nice, so completely comforting, he never would have fallen asleep like that, and the truth was, waking up with his head still cradled in her lap had been, well . . . a little _too_ nice. Still . . .

' _What if she had been attacked in the night? She could have been killed faster than I would have been able to react . . . Damn!_ '

He grimaced. He hadn't meant to hurt her, and he had a feeling that he had.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome cupped her hands together and lifted the icy cold water to her face, against the ache in her eyes. ' _Don't you dare cry, Kagome! That baka doesn't deserve it!_ '

Drying her face on a clean kerchief, she nodded slowly. She just wished she understood why he was so angry. She's the one that had sat up all night. She kept her bow and arrows close, just in case. Most of the night, though, she had been happy enough to listen to that peculiar rumble of his and stroke his ears. He always spent the nights sitting up or dozing against the base of a tree. He didn't really get a chance to sleep very often. She thought she was doing something nice for him.

Close to dawn, a rat youkai had stumbled into the clearing. Kagome could tell by the way it had stopped and sniffed the air before staring straight at her backpack that it was after the jewel. It had taken her less than a minute with one of her arrows to destroy the beast. Her pride at being able to protect the jewel, herself, and InuYasha had been sweet.

She sighed. ' _Don't tell him about the youkai, unless you want him screaming even louder_.'

Kagome stood up and squared her shoulders. If InuYasha was going to be a jerk, then she was not going to give him any more reason to gripe at her, she decided as she headed back toward the campsite.

He was waiting for her. Everything was packed up and ready to go. Her backpack was casually slung over his shoulder, and he was only scowling a little. She stifled a sigh when she saw what he had in his hand. It was the arrow she'd used to kill the rat youkai.

"What's this?" he asked, his tone a little too neutral.

"It was nothing, just a rat-youkai, and you know how much I hate rats . . ."

He digested that in silence and started walking. Kagome followed. "One arrow, huh?" he asked as he glanced back over his shoulder. She nodded. He turned to look straight ahead again. "Nice."

She smiled slightly as she stared at his back, recognizing what he said to her beneath the words he'd spoken. ' _I forgive you_ ,' she thought as she hurried to walk beside him.

 

 

 

 

 


	11. Katosan

Kagome lay in the grass and sighed happily as InuYasha sat against a rock with his arms wrapped around Tetsusaiga. "You ready to go yet?" he asked, unable to keep the boredom out of his tone.

"In a minute," she agreed, closing her eyes as the early afternoon sun drenched her in warmth.

"Keh. You humans are pathetic and lazy . . . pathetically lazy."

"Clever doggie," she drawled.

"Wench."

She rolled over and propped her chin on her hands to stare at InuYasha with an amused smile. "You're always in a hurry. Take your time. Appreciate the little things."

His head was turned to the side. He opened his eye to shoot her a sidelong glance. "I _do_ appreciate the little things," he argued.

"Name one."

He stared at her a moment. Kagome felt her heart speed up at the way his molten gold eyes caught the light and locked with hers. She was having trouble breathing as his stare intensified. Did he know what he did to her? She prayed he didn't. He was dangerous enough without arming him with that sort of knowledge. "I appreciate the things I'll never understand," he said softly.

Heat filtered into her skin, crept up her cheeks despite her attempt to keep it from happening. She smiled as he looked away again. "What'll you do after we find this book and purify the jewel?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Her smile faded, and she looked away. "Well, you won't have anything left to fight for. What'll you do?"

"Keh. There's _always_ something to fight for."

Kagome pushed herself up on her knees and scooted forward to intercept InuYasha's ears. He ducked away. "Five minutes?"

"Keh."

"Four?"

"Keh."

"Three?"

"Keh."

"Three and I promise not to say 'it' the rest of the day?"

He considered that and finally leaned toward her again. "All right, but you promised."

Wondering if she hadn't just made a colossal mistake, Kagome took hold of InuYasha's ears and spent the next few minutes inducing the rumbling noise from him.

With a sigh, Kagome let her hands fall away from InuYasha's ears as she sank back. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked. "Has it been three minutes?"

She nodded and tried to hide her smile as he frowned. He'd obviously enjoyed it but was too stubborn to tell her anything of the sort. "Don't make me regret that promise," she warned as she stood up.

"Keh! Would I do that?"

Her gaze narrowed as he slowly got to his feet. "Yes, I think you would."

His chuckle was far from reassuring. Starting back toward the path, InuYasha suddenly stopped. "Wait." Kagome stopped and took the backpack that InuYasha shoved at her as he drew Tetsusaiga. "You might as well come out. I can smell your stench from here."

A tree on the outskirts of the clearing suddenly shook seconds before a youkai lit on the ground before them. InuYasha pushed Kagome further behind him and eyed the hawk youkai with a suspicious narrowing of his gaze. In his human form, the only outstanding features on the stranger were the pronounced beak-like nose and piercing golden eyes. His hair stood up all over, reminding Kagome of a baby bird's down-covered head. He deliberately stepped toward InuYasha but stopped far enough way to escape if InuYasha attacked.

"Another vile puppy? I thought we'd chased your kind from these hills long ago—except for the one who is too foolish to know better than to stay where he isn't wanted. I am Waku, son of Hisato, leader of the hawk youkai. What do you seek here?" The youkai's golden eyes widened as he shifted his gaze to settle on Kagome. "You . . . you have the Shikon no Tama?"

"Yeah, we do. Too bad you'll never see it," InuYasha remarked in an oddly calm tone. "Get out of our way or I'll have to pluck you."

Waku laughed. "Entertaining bit of fuzz, aren't you, whelp?"

"Who the hell are you?" InuYasha snarled.

"Calm down before you wet yourself, puppy. I've got tail feathers that are older than you."

"Hide and watch while I clip your wings!" InuYasha bellowed as he lunged at the hawk. Tetsusaiga whistled through the air. The hawk jumped back and hovered out of InuYasha's reach.

"Fetch me the jewel, puppy, before I have to take you home and feed you to my young . . . and they're starving."

InuYasha rolled to the side as the hawk dove in to strike. The youkai's talons—Kagome hadn't noticed those before—hooked onto InuYasha's sleeve, and she gasped as the hawk yanked. The sleeve in Waku's grasp tore away. The violent rip echoed through the air, straight to Kagome's brain. Before she could scream, InuYasha had rolled back to his feet and laughed defiantly at the youkai. "Not even a scratch. Can't you do better than that?"

The hawk youkai plunged to strike again. InuYasha brought down Tetsusaiga, " _Kaze no Kizu!"_ The flames shot out of Tetsusaiga. Waku tried to alter his course but couldn't avoid the attack completely. He fell to the ground clutching his right arm. His eyes brightened dangerously as he glared at InuYasha.

"I've toyed with you long enough, puppy," he said quietly as he rose to his feet. Without warning, he flew forward and shoved Tetsusaiga out of InuYasha's grip. The sword flew through the air and landed, tip embedded in the ground next to Kagome. She jerked it out as it transformed back to its rusty state, and she darted forward.

"No!" InuYasha warned. Waku stood between them, and the hawk youkai knew it.

InuYasha wiped his face on his shoulder. Kagome gulped when she saw the scarlet of his blood staining the stark white material. ' _He must've gotten hit when Waku knocked away Tetsusaiga . . ._ '

Waku shot a quick glance back at Kagome. She saw the start of a nasty grin as the youkai turned his head back. "Does she mean so much to you, whelp? Do you care so much for this human girl?" He stepped to the side, unwilling to leave his back exposed to Kagome. "Or is it the tainted part of you that wants her? You reek of human blood, hanyou." Waku lunged forward. InuYasha met him half way. Waku unleashed a burst of youkai energy in a flash of purple light. It hit InuYasha in the chest and threw him back.

" _InuYasha!"_ she shrieked as she ran to his side where he landed. The gash on his temple was deep, and it took a moment for him to open his eyes. He blinked a few times to clear his vision before shoving her back and struggling to his feet.

"Get back," he commanded as he snatched Tetsusaiga out of her hands. "Now!"

She didn't have to be told twice. InuYasha brandished Tetsusaiga as it transformed back into his father's true fang, and he held it in ready.

"Waku! Enough!"

Kagome gasped as the newcomer stepped out of the forest. Clad all in white, he looked remarkably like another youkai she knew except his hair was tawny golden brown, not silvery white. He moved with the same bearing and grace as Sesshoumaru, and Kagome shot a questioning glance at InuYasha.

InuYasha gave nothing away in his expression. Still ready to attack or defend, he intercepted Kagome's look and uttered a warning growl for her to stay put.

The stranger grabbed Waku's shoulder and pushed him back. "Shall I inform Hisato of your trespass?"

Waku glowered at the youkai, but finally shook his head once. "No."

"Do you realize who you have attacked?" The youkai's gaze shifted to the side as he assessed InuYasha. "You are InuYasha, are you not?"

InuYasha nodded. "Who are you?"

Ignoring the question, the youkai turned his attention back to the errant hawk-youkai once more. "Do it again, and you will deal with me," the youkai growled, letting go of Waku's shoulder and pushing him away. Waku stalked off into the woods after a last glower, directed not only at InuYasha but also at the unfamiliar youkai, as well. Kagome ran to InuYasha's side as the youkai approached them. To her surprise, he dropped to one knee when he reached them and bowed his head humbly. "I apologize, InuYasha-sama. I am Katosan. It is an honor to serve you."

InuYasha seemed distinctly uncomfortable. More used to being cast out, the sort of welcome that Katosan was offering was unsettling the hanyou. "Um, yeah," he mumbled. "We just came to ask you about—"

Katosan rose and nodded. "Yes, I know. Your subordinate was here. He explained the situation to me." He nodded to Kagome. "You must be the miko, Kagome-sama. If you will follow me, I have made arrangements for the both of you in my home. It isn't much, but you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like."

"Let me check your cut," Kagome said, digging into the backpack for the first aid kit.

"Later," InuYasha replied as he dropped Tetsusaiga back into its sheath. "Come on."

Kagome closed the bag and stood, staring after Katosan with a slight frown. InuYasha started away. He glanced back over his shoulder and called back to her, "Hurry up, Kagome. We ain't got all day."

She caught up with him but didn't take her eyes off of the youkai leading them away. "He doesn't seem to mind that you're a hanyou," she remarked neutrally.

InuYasha nodded slightly, also staring at Katosan's back. "He doesn't, does he?"

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Damn!"

"Sorry!"

"Be careful with that! Ow!"

"Sorry!" Kagome said again with a wince. The alcohol swab she was trying to use to clean the cut on his temple was jerked out of her hand and tossed across the room. "InuYasha!"

The stubborn hanyou snorted. "Keh! I'm fine." He shot off the floor and stalked around the comfortable room. Kagome could feel his discomfort. It was the same feeling she'd gotten from him at Sesshoumaru's castle on the cliff.

"Why do you hate being here? And Sesshoumaru's, too?"

He stopped and threw open the rice-paper covered windows and leaned on the frame. "I just . . . hate them—these damn places."

"Why?"

"Keh. It don't matter."

Kagome didn't believe that. Taking her time as she carefully repacked the first aid kit, she stuck her tongue out as she frowned in concentration. "And you're sure? I'd listen, you know . . . if you wanted to talk about . . . anything."

She could feel his gaze on her but when she peeked up through the thick fringe of her eyelashes, he was staring out the window.

He gazed at the sky, a certain melancholy stealing over his features. "My mother and I lived in a place like this. When she died . . ." Trailing off, he shook his head as though he were brushing aside something he didn't want to think about. "She used to tell me that I'd always be welcome in her home, by her people. When she died, I learned that there are some places on earth that are worse than hell."

Kagome sighed and stood. She went to him slowly, wrapped her arms around his chest, hugging him as though her action could help him. He didn't pull away. "We don't have to stay here," she offered. The words seemed hollow to her ears, and she wished he would say something.

"I can't leave until I get some answers," he said with a sigh. He turned enough to put an arm around her, holding her close.

' _So much pain_ ,' she thought as she tightened her arms around him. ' _I don't want him to hurt anymore_.'

The door slid open. The intruder cleared his throat. Kagome let her arms drop away and stepped back, careful to keep her eyes on her feet as heat stole up her cheeks.

"Dinner has been served, if you will follow me," a servant informed them. Kagome could tell that he was youkai, but his aura seemed harmless and kind.

InuYasha led the way out of the room. Kagome lagged behind as her brow furrowed in concentration. ' _I'll help you, InuYasha. I just want you to be happy_.'

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome didn't do much more than pick at her food. Maybe it was the stress of the day. Maybe it was the lack of sleep from the night before. For some reason, she felt jittery, edgy, and as the meal progressed, InuYasha spoke at length with their host about Naraku, the search for the Shikon no Kakera, and about Sesshoumaru. To her surprise, he didn't call his brother his favorite pet name even once, and even more surprising, Katosan seemed reverent, so unlike most youkai they'd come in contact with who openly scoffed at InuYasha mixed heritage.

"I served your father for centuries," Katosan remarked with an easy smile. "His untimely death greatly disturbed me."

"Yeah," InuYasha agreed, settling back with his arms folded together. Kagome frowned. Something felt strange, didn't it? That InuYasha rarely, if ever, spoke in great detail about his father was a given. That he was doing so now and without the defensiveness that normally accompanied such introspection seemed more than a little unsettling. "I never really knew him."

Katosan nodded slowly. "Your mother . . . I remember Izayoi-sama . . . Remarkable woman, absolutely stunning."

Kagome waited for InuYasha to snap at the man—his normal response to anything of this nature. "She was," he allowed quietly. Kagome blinked in surprise. InuYasha drew a deep breath. "Myouga told you that I'm looking for the book, didn't he? Sesshoumaru said it was stolen."

Katosan mimicked InuYasha's stance as his expression took on a marked scowl. "I wish I knew where it was myself. The last time I saw it, it was in your brother's safekeeping. Someone must have wanted it badly, to risk the wrath of the current Inu no Taisho. Had I known, I would have kept a better eye on it."

InuYasha looked confused for a moment. "Why would you care about it?"

Katosan smiled sadly. Kagome caught the strange glint in Katosan's expression, an unsettling anger. It was gone as quickly as it had come. Still, she hadn't missed it. The flash of rage struck her as unusual. "Your father was tai-youkai. He was Inu no Taisho. He was Lord of the Western Lands, but he was also one of my dearest friends." He stared at InuYasha for a moment. "And you, InuYasha-sama . . . You look exactly like him."

InuYasha shook his head. "But why would someone want to take it? It isn't valuable. Why would it interest anyone enough to steal it?"

Katosan's gaze shifted from InuYasha to Kagome. He stared at her though his words were directed at InuYasha. "Your father was feared as well as respected. With that fear comes hatred. Surely you know this. Have you never encountered those who mock you and hate you because they fear what you are? When your father showed weakness for a mortal woman, there were those who sought to overthrow him."

"Because of my mother?"

Kagome flinched at the raw bitterness in InuYasha's tone.

Katosan seemed almost pleased with InuYasha's reaction as he went on, "In the youkai world, weakness means death, and in the end, your father chose death. Your brother is much like your father. Perhaps someone thought to see what had caused this weakness in your father in hopes that your brother would harbor the same."

"What's in this book?" Kagome asked. She lifted her chin stubbornly when both sets of golden eyes locked on her.

Katosan glanced at InuYasha, waiting to see if InuYasha would answer. With a sigh, InuYasha closed his eyes for a moment before nodding slowly. "It's my mother's journal," he said quietly. "Mother's story."

 

 

 

 

 


	12. Diary

Kagome smashed her finger under her nose to stave back the sneeze that she felt welling up. InuYasha shot her an irritated glance. "There it is! How are you going to hit it when you've got your fingers jammed up your nose?"

She scowled at him. "They're not _up_ my nose, baka! They're _under_ my nose."

"They're supposed to be _on_ your arrow," he pointed out. "Damn it, look!"

She sighed as the rabbit disappeared into the underbrush. She let her hand fall and picked up the arrow she had dropped.

"You did that on purpose," he accused, settling back and sticking his hands in his sleeves. "See if I care! You'll be the one moaning and groaning about being hungry when you've got nothing to eat."

"I would have scared it off anyway if I had sneezed," she shot back then sneezed anyway. "Told you!" She sneezed again.

"Keh! You'd better not be getting sick, wench."

She shook her head. "As if I could help that, if I was, which I'm not. It's all these leaves! They're making my hay fever rea-a- _achooo!_ "

InuYasha leaned toward her and sniffed. "You don't _smell_ sick," he accused, gaze narrowing suspiciously.

"I dold you, I'b dot sick," she mumbled. _'Oh, great! My nose is getting all stuffy!_ '

"Guess you're going hungry, then," he goaded.

"I doh see why we habe do sid id the bushes," she remarked with a sniffle.

InuYasha made a face. "Because if you don't hide they'll see you or smell you—hell, they'd smell you anyway. You smell like summer flowers, you know," he pointed out with a reproving frown.

She blinked as she stared at him. The waning sunlight shone off his hair in silvery waves. He looked almost majestic despite the fact that he was sitting in the bushes beside her. Chin lifted proudly, eyes trained to the side as he scanned the clearing for their potential dinner, he had his hands up his sleeves again, and for once, he seemed calm. "Whad's wrog wid dad? You _like_ da way I sbell," she reminded him.

"Keh! It's not summer!"

"Mmmph." She sniffled again.

"Kami, wench! That's disgusting! Can't you do something about that? You sound like a stuck pig."

She grabbed a handful of leaves and chucked them into InuYasha's face. Seconds later, he sneezed. She grinned---until she sneezed, too.

He retaliated by tossing leaves at her. She threw some over his head. The dried leaves stuck in his hair. She giggled and sneezed again.

He rolled his eyes. "You'll _never_ be a decent hunter."

"That's why I keep you around, dog-boy."

"Oh, is it? It's not to keep your pretty head on your shoulders?"

"Well, there's that, too," she said then gasped softly as InuYasha's words soaked in. Kagome felt her heart leap at his backhanded compliment, and she rolled slightly to the side to gaze at InuYasha, ignoring the heat that surfaced on her skin. "Why, InuYasha! I never knew you thought so!"

He flushed and looked away. "Keh. Pay attention. I smell a wild boar."

Kagome drew back her arrow as she watched the boar amble into the clearing. She carefully took aim. Then the beast turned and stared at her. It looked so sad, so helpless, and it wasn't very big . . . Kagome sneezed. The boar lumbered away, and InuYasha sighed.

"You did that on purpose," he charged.

She rolled her eyes. "I can't sneeze on command," she shot back as she let the bow and arrow fall to the ground. Actually, she _could_ sneeze on command, sometimes. If she had already sneezed a few times, , all she had to do was rub her tongue against the roof of her mouth and she'd sneeze. But _he_ didn't need to know that.

"If you ain't going to see your side of the deal through," he began, "you shouldn't make the deal."

"I didn't _say_ I'd _hunt_ dinner."

"You said you'd _take care_ of dinner. This is part of it, wench."

Kagome made a face. _'You_ did _say that. You said you'd do that if he'd let you rub his ears for five minutes._ '

She sneezed three times in a row and sniffled for good measure.

"Ugh," he breathed, looking rightfully appalled. He caught her hand and tugged her off the ground. "Come on," he said with a melodramatic sigh.

"Where are we going?"

He shot her a dark look. "I'm taking you back to camp so I can catch our dinner without you sneezing away the game, _and_ without you making those wild-pig noises."

"InuYasha!" she protested, making sure her expression was properly affronted. She was smiling on the inside.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Do you think you'll be able to find the journal?"

InuYasha shrugged. "I don't know. It doesn't look good. Katosan said he would look into it."

His answer bothered her. He could tell by the way her back stiffened that she was worried about something. "I don't know . . . are you sure you can trust Katosan?"

He frowned and glanced at her. She was digging his nemesis out of her gargantuan bag. He growled. Something about that glossy blue book really irritated him . . . "He served my old man for centuries. You heard him. I never _said_ I trust him," he grumbled.

She settled down with the hated school book but didn't open it as she stared at him. "You do, though. I can tell. I thought it normally takes you longer to trust anyone," she remarked neutrally, toying with the pleats in her navy blue skirt.

"You don't, do you?"

"I never said that," she answered slowly.

"Keh. You didn't have to. I can tell by your reaction," he scoffed. "You don't trust him."

She sighed. "What I think isn't important. What do you think? Are you sure you can trust him?"

It was his turn to sigh. He sat back and stared pensively at the fire. "I don't know."

He could feel Kagome's gaze on him. She wanted to ask him something, he could tell. He also knew, too, that she never took that long in asking something unless she knew it was something that he wasn't going to like or that he flat out wouldn't answer. He waited for her to bring it up.

"Will you read it, if you find it?"

He shrugged. "Don't much care to. No good can come of it."

Kagome took her time as InuYasha braced himself for whatever she was thinking. The only times she was ever this careful was when she was about to say something that she knew he didn't want to discuss. "I was thinking . . . do you suppose she wrote it for you? That she knew that she might not be able to tell you things that you should know?"

"Keh . . . like she knew she'd die?" He snorted indelicately and shot to his feet. Kagome had an uncanny way of putting things into words that he'd already wondered, himself.

Kagome stood and grabbed his arm gently, stopping him before he could leave camp. "No, not that . . . I'll bet she had no intention of dying and leaving you alone. A mother wouldn't do that." She sighed and let go of him.

"I don't want to talk about this," he remarked, struggling to keep his tone from escalating.

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the fire without seeing the flames. She wasn't finished. He braced himself for the rest of her assessment. "Mama told me once that sometimes there are things that a mother wants to say that she just can't articulate to her child because she knows it's painful. Maybe . . . Maybe that's what's in the journal."

"Maybe," he agreed. He shook his head slowly and lifted his gaze to the skies. ' _Or maybe the journal was the reason that she died._ '

With a deep breath, InuYasha turned and walked out of the circle of light.

Leaping into the first tree he came to, InuYasha settled against the trunk to watch as Kagome stared at the fire a little longer. He couldn't hear her sigh but he knew she'd done that as she sank back down on her bedroll with that damned calculus book.

He didn't remember much about his mother. He didn't remember anything at all about his father. He'd only seen a vision of him once after Sesshoumaru and he had banished the blade of hell, and that was a memory that InuYasha held dear, even if he refused to admit as much to Kagome or even to himself.

' _Do I even want to know what's in that journal?_ ' He winced. Why was it that the memories of his mother's tears were the only ones he could bring to mind when he thought of her? ' _Just . . . painful things . . ._ '

' _Keh! They're just words! Words can't hurt me! Words can't break me or change me . . . words can't do a damn thing, and words can't change the past_.'

A sudden loneliness swept through him, and he shivered despite the mild night air. Kagome looked up. He was sure that she couldn't see him yet she seemed to be looking right at him, too. She smiled shyly and ducked her head. InuYasha suddenly felt warm again, as though the sun was shining on him despite it being the middle of the night. How did she do that?

He cocked his head to the side and leaned forward, squinting as he watched her fish another book out of her bag. He'd seen the small brown book before. He'd never paid much attention to it. She leafed through the pages and chewed on the end of her pen as she stared thoughtfully at the pages. Then she hunched over and started to write.

"InuYasha-sama!"

"What do you want?" InuYasha asked, his preoccupation with Kagome and her book apparent. Myouga took the opportunity to suck blood from the hanyou's throat. InuYasha smashed him but remained silent.

"Ohh," Myouga complained as he settled on InuYasha's knee. He glanced up at InuYasha then over toward Kagome. "And what is our young Kagome-sama doing there?"

"Apparently she's got a damn journal, too," InuYasha remarked with a snort.

"A journal, you say? Oh! Do tell!"

InuYasha's frown darkened as Kagome diligently turned the page and kept writing. "Keh! Who cares! It doesn't even interest me, not in the least! Let Kagome write her useless words."

"And if she's written stuff about you, InuYasha-sama? Wouldn't you like to know? I know I would, if I were you . . ."

He hadn't thought of that. Stubbornness dictated his reply, "Not at all. Why should it matter to me?"

Myouga sighed as he stared at Kagome. "She reminds me of your mother."

"Keh! They don't look anything alike."

"No, InuYasha-sama! I meant that her heart is like your mother's: gentle, kind . . . tasty . . ."

Wrinkling his nose, InuYasha snorted as he considered flicking the flea youkai into next month. "Keh! Did you find out anything useful or did you just show up to irritate me?"

Myouga finally dragged his attention off the miko and turned to face InuYasha. "I wondered how your meeting with Katosan went."

InuYasha snorted and closed his eyes. "Fine, I guess. He said he'd look into it."

"Where are you heading now, then?"

InuYasha shrugged and cracked an eye open to stare at the flea youkai. "Kagome's got an _exam_ —" he was unable to keep the bitterness at the word out of his voice, "—and she didn't tell her mother that she was chasing after me, so she was worried that her mother might be mad at her for disappearing, so I'm taking her back to the village."

Myouga sighed, his attention wandering to Kagome once more. "Maybe she wouldn't notice if I 'borrowed' just a little of her blood . . ."

"Scram, and keep away from Kagome." That said, InuYasha sent Myouga flying with a flick of his claw and dropped out of the tree.

' _And if she's written stuff about you, InuYasha-sama? Wouldn't you like to know?_ '

' _Keh! Like she's going to_ let _you read that, baka! She'll osuwari you if you even try to get a peek!_ ' He made a face. "Damn!"

' _Offer her something she wants, then! Something she can't resist._ '

"Something she wants?" he muttered as he wandered closer to the campsite. "Like what?"

' _Don't be stupid, InuYasha! Think!_ '

' _Something she wants . . ._ ' A slow grin spread over his features, his eyes glowing as his determination grew. ' _Hmm . . . this might work . . ._ '

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome recapped her pen and dropped her diary in her backpack with a sigh. Her neck hurt from bending over the book, but it was good therapy to keep a journal of her travels. Her mother had bought the expensive book the second time she'd come home from the feudal era. Mrs. Higurashi thought that it would be an interesting way to remember her adventures.

' _Funny that my diary has helped me in history class,_ ' she thought with a wry smile. Her gaze fell on her calculus book, and she made a face. She rolled her neck from side to side before lifting the textbook and opening it.

A shadow fell over the pages, and Kagome lifted her chin to gaze at InuYasha, who had been way too quiet in his approach. Her expression turned suspicious at the knowing look he gave her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked slowly.

He didn't smile but she could tell he wanted to. That worried her even more. He knelt down and reached over, plucking her diary off the top of the bag's contents. Kagome stared at the leather-bound book. "I want to read this," InuYasha remarked but didn't open it.

"Give it back," she said, willing her voice to remain calm. "I'll say 'it'."

He relented and handed her back the diary. She clutched it against her chest as if she was trying to protect it. "We could trade," he remarked casually---a little _too_ casually.

"Trade what?"

She was positive now. She really didn't like that glint in InuYasha's eyes.

The glint brightened. He leaned forward for good measure. "Ears for journal."

Her eyes widened and she leaned back. Her mouth fell open in shock, and it took a few moments before she could make her voice work. "No! I can't believe you--- _No!_ " He blinked at her. " _Stop that! No!_ "

He blinked again. "Stop what?"

Kagome snapped her mouth closed so hard her teeth rattled. He really didn't know what he had just done, but there was a very good chance he did now. His gaze suddenly grew brighter, and he blinked---again. She stifled a groan. "No."

He seemed to think that over. Finally he frowned and sat back. "All right, Kagome. I didn't want to have to resort to this, but you're forcing me to."

For a moment, she thought he meant to take the diary by force. Her arms tightened. There were things in there that he didn't need to see; things about him, and about her feelings. He wasn't getting it without a fight. Her gaze narrowed. ' _I'll say 'it' so many times he'll have to wait five hundred years for a backhoe to dig him out . . ._ '

"Do you want to read my mother's journal, if I find it?"

Kagome frowned. "I thought you didn't know if you'd read it or not."

He shook his head slowly. "I don't know if I will."

"But you'd let me read it?"

He nodded and sighed. "I always thought it was weird, why she was so determined that I should know how to read. Guess now I know why."

Kagome digested his offer a moment. Hard enough to pass up the idea of being able to play with his ears. ' _Maybe there's some sort of strange drug on them that absorbs through my fingers_ ,' she thought with an inward giggle. ' _Yeah . . . I'm addicted to his ears . . .'_ Then he had offered to let her read his mother's journal . . . that was huge. ' _He really_ does _trust me, doesn't he?_ '

Her gaze dropped to the diary she still held against her chest. Sure it was full of personal things, but his mother's journal was bound to be, too, and she trusted him. Just to clarify the deal, though, she sighed. " _If_ I let you read my diary, then I get to rub your ears _and_ read your mother's journal when you find it?"

InuYasha looked up as he thought it over. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Kagome made a face. "I have a condition of my own."

He blinked at her again. She nearly growled in frustration. She really shouldn't have let that slip . . . ' _You've let a lot more than just that slip, if you're really going to let him read your diary, baka!_ ' She wrinkled her nose. "You have to start at the beginning and read straight through. No skipping around."

He considered that then held out his hand.

Kagome hesitantly held out the diary but didn't let go. InuYasha got the hint and lay down on his side, facing the fire, then held out his hand for the book. With one last sigh, Kagome handed it over before turning her attention to his ears.

' _Maybe_ ,' she allowed as his rumbling started almost immediately, ' _this wasn't such a bad trade, after all.'_

 

 

 

 

 


	13. Apology

InuYasha sighed loudly as he tapped his claws on the ruffled pink bedspread.

"Shh!"

He wrinkled his nose and frowned. "Aren't you almost done?"

"Nope."

"Keh!"

"Shh!"

He rolled off Kagome's bed and stomped out of the room. With a sigh of relief, Kagome continued entering the answers to her exam on the computer. To alleviate the trouble of her ever-increasing absences, Mrs. Higurashi had signed Kagome up for online schooling. She could turn in her assignments via email and only had to make sure she was online in time for the exams. ' _Thank kami for technology_ ,' she thought wryly as she keyed in the last answer. She took a moment to double check her answers before she hit, 'submit'.

She clicked the mouse button and leaned back in the chair to stretch. She had exams in all her classes this week, and though InuYasha wasn't happy about it, he had offered to come with her. It had surprised her. Then again, he'd been acting a little different toward her since he'd started reading her diary. Not for the first time, Kagome wondered if she had made a huge mistake in allowing him to read the book, but she'd given her word. She couldn't go back on it now.

What did surprise her is that he actually hadn't read much of it. He seemed to be reading only one entry at a time, and while she was glad because it put off the inevitable, he didn't say what he thought of her entries, either.

She sighed and dragged out the English textbook. Her exam in that was first thing in the morning. She sighed. Nothing frustrated her more than having to cram for exams. Every time she promised herself that she would take more time in the evenings to study, something seemed to come up that always seemed to make it impossible. Lately InuYasha had been the greatest distraction. When she had gotten out the calculus textbook last night to do some last minute studying, he had actually growled at the book.

She grinned. She couldn't complain too much about him, though. As frustrating as he could be, she had to admit that she felt a lot closer to him since the last time she had been home.

Her gaze fell on her diary. InuYasha had read up through her first entry after Shippou had joined them. She grimaced. Shippou had been so sad that they were both leaving again so soon that she had promised him extra treats. Scribbling herself a note on the Post-It pad beside the computer, Kagome added a few extra things to the list. ' _Body_ _wash for Sango . . . energy bars for Miroku . . ._ ' Her smile widened. ' _Ramen for InuYasha . . . and if he's really nice, maybe I'll get him some potato chips . . ._ '

"Oi, wench. Is that _exam_ done yet?"

Kagome shifted her eyes to the side as InuYasha re-entered the room with a bottle of water. He flopped across the bed again. The bed groaned under the impact. Kagome stabbed him with a dark look. "If you break that, InuYasha—"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll say 'it', I know. Hurry up and study, will you?"

Kagome turned in the chair and hung onto the back, resting her chin on her hands. "Why are you so anxious?"

"Keh! I'm not anxious."

She knew better. Lying on his side with his left knee bent, he tapped his right foot as his claws scratched against the comforter. Ears perked up and moving around like little radars, Kagome couldn't help the smile that surfaced on her face.   He caught her gaze and blinked. She felt her cheeks growing warm and whipped around to stare at her textbook. She just _knew_ he was grinning.

After twenty minutes, she slammed her book closed with a sigh.

"Finally!" he remarked with a loud snort.

She stood up and pulled her list off the stack of notes. "Come on."

"Where?"

"I've got to get a few things, and since you're not happy to stay here and be good, then we might as well go to the store."

"Keh! ' _Stay here and be good, InuYasha. Stay here and be quiet, InuYasha. Roll over, InuYasha. Let me scratch your ears, InuYasha._ ' I'm not a fucking puppy!" he bellowed.

She hid her smile as she slapped a baseball cap over his ears. "Why, I never said you were, InuYasha."

He yanked it off to readjust it as he snorted loudly in protest.

"Is something wrong, InuYasha?" Mrs. Higurashi asked as she breezed into Kagome's bedroom with a stack of clean laundry.

"Ask Kagome," he grumbled.

Mrs. Higurashi shot Kagome a questioning look. Kagome shrugged and dragged InuYasha out of the room. She let go at the bottom of the stairs to struggle into her jacket. InuYasha rolled his eyes. "Pathetic human," he muttered, holding the back of her collar as she glanced up at him.

"Thanks."

"Keh."

She sighed and opened the front door. "Come on, grumpy. I _was_ going to buy you some ramen and potato chips but if you're going to be such a grouch . . ."

His ears twitched as he grudgingly thought it over. "Ramen? Dried potatoes?" He hurried after her. "Oi! Kagome! Wait for me!"

"Was it something I said?" she asked innocently.

InuYasha shoved his hands up his sleeves and slowly walked beside her. "Can we get the ramen and dried potatoes first?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I promised Shippou extra treats, and I should pick up some things for Sango and Miroku." She made a face. "I _did_ eat all the energy bars I bought for him the last time, and I swear I hope I _never_ have to eat another one again."

She stopped abruptly and rounded to stare at him when he whined softly. "InuYasha?"

"Why can't we get the ramen and dried potatoes first?"

Kagome nearly choked at the blatantly pouting expression on his face---and she almost caved in, too. "If you behave yourself in the store, we'll get more for you, okay?"

He considered that. "How _much_ more?"

She started walking again. "As much as you care to carry through the well."

He was quiet for a moment before he nodded once. "I can carry a lot."

Kagome laughed and dragged him into the small shop to buy Sango's body wash.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha forced his eyes open as he tried to read Kagome's diary. He'd re-read the same passage about a dozen times as she gently scratched around the base of his ears. ' _She's getting a little too good at this_ ,' he thought absently. He leaned back, closer to her hands and forced his waning attention back onto the journal.

So far there hadn't been much about him, other than her initial impression of him hadn't been very flattering. He made a face. He'd be the first to admit that the two of them hadn't had the greatest of beginnings. Still, to see her so eloquently state his 'faults' was a humbling experience, and since he'd read those first few entries, he'd tried to be a little less . . . well, any of them. ' _Baka_ had been used more than once, as had ' _jerk'_ , ' _stubborn'_ , ' _unbearable'_ , ' _arrogant'_ , ' _condescending'_ . . . had he mentioned ' _baka'_? That had actually been the title of one of her entries: _InuYasha no baka_ —complete with about twenty exclamation points after the sentence.

He sighed. This entry wasn't quite so bad. It was actually a little more interesting. ' _The first time I became human in front of her . . . the new moon . . ._ '

She talked of his battles with the spider-head youkai. He couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself and the way she described him. In this entry, she called him ' _brave'_ and ' _heroic'_. He didn't realize that she thought he was any of those things when he'd gone back to retrieve the jewel shards even though he was human at the time. She never said that to him before . . .

' _I was so frightened, when InuYasha got bitten by the old man. I thought I would lose him, not that he is mine. But after Myouga drew the venom out of him, and I cradled his head in my lap, he said some things. He said that he liked how I smelled, even though he had always said he didn't. That's got to be something, right? He is inu-hanyou, after all . . ._ '

InuYasha stared at that passage for a few moments, tracing the words with the claw of his index finger.

' _His voice was so awestruck when he asked why I'd cried for him. I knew his life hadn't been easy, but that . . . well, I suppose that drove it home for me. Poor guy. I can't imagine what his life has been like, and I don't think I'd want to. I want to make him smile. I want to make him laugh . . ._ '

InuYasha closed the book and swallowed hard. He'd never known . . . She cared that much back then? He'd never given her any reason to. Her previous entries had proven that. ' _InuYasha no baka!'_ Why?

Kagome stopped rubbing and leaned forward to peek over InuYasha's shoulder. "You're done?" she asked, surprised that he had already closed the diary. Her breath brushed against the thin, fine hairs inside his ears, and with a whine, he flicked his ear and rolled off the bed. "InuYasha?"

He pushed his feet against the floor to propel himself backward until he bumped into the desk, an odd look on his face. Kagome frowned. "InuYasha? What's wrong?"

He shook his head quickly and smashed his hands over his ears. Kagome sat up. "Did I hurt you?"

He shook his head again without uncovering his ears. She leaned back when he whined again. "Okay, you're freaking me out."

"If I tell you, you'll do it on purpose," he mumbled.

"I won't . . . what did I do?"

Another whine, another shake of his head. She scooted off the bed, landing on her knees, and she scooted toward him, reaching out slowly to pull his hands away. He resisted for a moment then let her but his ears remained plastered against his skull. "InuYasha?"

Finally he lifted his chin and glared at the door. Cheeks bright pink, and a marked scowl on his features, Kagome waited for an explanation. He sighed. "It tickled."

"Tickled?" she echoed. "What tickled?"

"Keh! You breathed in my ear, wench."

"Argh!" she growled, slapping her hands on the floor as she leaned closer to him. "I thought I had hurt you, baka!"

His chin rose proudly though his flush didn't diminish. "Keh! You can't hurt me! We've been through that, right?"

She stood up and stomped out of the room with a parting, " _Baka!_ "

He rubbed his ears again and grimaced. It wasn't _his_ fault. It _had_ tickled. He was just getting used to letting Kagome play with his ears. To have them tickled . . . He made a face. Touching he could stand. Rubbing he could tolerate. Scratching was nice. Tickling? ' _No fucking way_.'

With a sigh, InuYasha got up and headed out of the room to see what Kagome was doing. He glanced back at the diary with a frown. Maybe he would read more of it later.

Kagome was in the kitchen puttering around while Mrs. Higurashi was reading the newspaper. "Hungry?" Kagome asked as InuYasha sank down at the table.

He blinked at her. She flushed. He ducked his head to hide his smile. ' _Blinking works_ ,' he mused. ' _I'll have to remember that . . ._ '

"Will you be home two weekends from now?" Mrs. Higurashi asked without looking up from the paper.

Kagome shrugged. "I don't know. InuYasha is supposed to be looking for something, and it's hard to say."

Mrs. Higurashi bent the paper over to look from InuYasha to Kagome. "Well, the next time you think to chase after InuYasha to tell him you're sorry, I don't expect you'll be gone for nearly two weeks," she remarked.

InuYasha's gaze narrowed as he turned his head to eye Kagome. "What's this about an apology?"

Her flush darkened. "Why were you wondering about my being home, Mama?"

"Keh!" InuYasha snorted at her not-so-subtle evasion.

"Oh, it's the annual antique auction. I thought if you weren't busy . . ."

Kagome shrugged as she set a cup of ramen before InuYasha and handed him a set of chopsticks. "Oh, I love that! I can't make any promises, but I'll try."

Mrs. Higurashi folded up the newspaper and patted InuYasha's arm then ruffled Kagome's hair before she left the kitchen.

InuYasha watched her go then dropped his chopsticks into the ramen.   He sat back, crossed his arms, and stared at Kagome. "Apology?" he asked again.

She sighed and leaned back against the counter, ankles crossed and arms wrapped over her stomach as she stared at her feet. "I was trying to catch up with you because I felt bad about Kouga."

"Damn right, you should."

Frowning at his ready agreement, Kagome sighed and plunged on. "I didn't realize until afterward that he probably would have given up his shards, even if I had said no."

" _And?_ " he prompted when she stopped.

"And what?"

" _Apology?_ "

Kagome reddened a little more and shot him a long-suffering glance. "And I should have listened and stayed behind you. I'm sorry."

He nearly laughed at her disgruntled tone. He contented himself with eating his ramen instead.

"You could say you're sorry, too, you know," Kagome grumbled.

"What for?" he challenged.

"You _were_ a little mean about it," she pointed out.

InuYasha shrugged, unwilling to relinquish the upper hand since he didn't have that nearly often enough. "If you'd have just listened---"

Kagome rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose as she whisked the plastic wrap from the ramen cup off the counter and into the small trash can under the sink. "Oh, never mind. I'm going to go finish studying. Throw your cup away when you're finished, okay?"

InuYasha shoved a huge bite of ramen into his mouth before answering. Kagome stomped out of the kitchen just before the hanyou broke into a wide grin. "Keh."

For some reason, being on the receiving end of an apology . . . it was a novel feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _For the sake of Kagome's diary, I'm opting to go via anime for the sequencing, since that is probably the better known of the two. While I tend most often to use manga reference when possible, I think it would work best here to deviate. Also, there will be references off and on to **InuYasha movie 3: The Sword of World Conquest**. I know, it isn't exactly canon, as far as being written by Rumiko Takahashi. But it is closer as a point of reference than the first two movies were, IMO_.


	14. Scars

' _I woke up with InuYasha staring at me. Maybe I'll rephrase that. He_ was examining _me like I was an alien, or like I'd grown a couple of limbs out of my skull. If that wasn't weird enough, he was way too close to me, too, and that was disturbing in a weird sort of way . . . Strange how his eyes always seem to change, even when I'm looking at him. There's a million colors mixed into the gold. I'm not sure which I like better: his fuzzy little ears or his eyes. I think it may be his ears . . ._ '

"Keh!" InuYasha snorted as he remembered the night she was talking about in her diary. He'd had a dream about Kikyou's betrayal. Still dwelling on that dream, he'd ended up looking at Kagome. It wasn't the first time he'd wondered how two very different women could have shared the same soul. He just hadn't planned on being caught staring at her, that was all.

' _I'm not too proud of my reaction though. I slapped him, hard. I didn't mean to, exactly. Well, maybe I did. It's just really freaky to wake up with a dog-eared half-youkai staring you—literally—in the face_.'

"Is it _really_ ," InuYasha remarked with a snort. ' _Freaky, huh?_ '

"Is what really?"

"Nothing," he grumbled. ' _She thought it was_ freaky _that I was staring at her? And . . . and she_ did _slap me hard! Wench!'_

' _I guess I just hadn't realized what Kikyou and InuYasha's relationship really had been. I knew they had once cared about each other. I guess I just stupidly thought they were just friends. It never occurred to me that she had loved him, or that he had loved her. He looked so sad, so confused when he came back from chasing after Kikyou. Shippou and Kaede were worried about me because of the soul incident with Kikyou, but I tried to tell them that I was fine. InuYasha was the one who needed them then. He really needed a friend._ '

InuYasha shook his head slowly, and he wondered once more if he hadn't made a colossal mistake in wanting to read Kagome's diary. He didn't really have a right to know these things, did he? Kagome had written it all, believing that no one else would ever see the things she remembered. He tilted his head back to look at her. The contentment in her expression shocked him. "Kagome?"

"Hmm?"

"If you don't want me to read your journal, I won't." He stifled a sigh as her fingers stopped moving. ' _I like that a little_ too _much_ ,' he thought wryly.

She uttered a suspicious sound and resumed stroking his ears again. "Is this some weird ploy to get me to stop messing with your ears?"

"Keh."

"I don't mind if you read it," she replied with a shrug. "I trust you."

He scowled and flopped over onto his back to stare into her eyes. "Why?"

The gentle smile that surfaced made her eyes glow. She pressed her lips together and shrugged. "Because you've never given me a reason not to. You've always protected me without asking for anything in return, and . . ." she exhaled slowly and lifted her chin to stare at the wall though her smile remained. "I feel safe with you."

' _She feels safe? With me?_ ' He smiled slightly, just a slight upturn at the corners of his lips. "You're sure?"

"Yep," she answered, wiggling her hand under his shoulder and trying to pull him back onto his side. "Now move it. I need more ear time."

He rolled his eyes but complied. "Keh!"

' _I'm not sure which freaked me out worse: finding out what InuYasha's feelings were for Kikyou, or earlier when he tried to kiss me. At least, I think he did. There was a strange look in his eyes when he stared at me, and my stomach did this weird thing, like when you ride a roller coaster and you feel like the bottom is falling out of your tummy. But he wasn't really trying to kiss_ me, _I don't think. I think he was trying to kiss Kikyou because he thinks she's me, or I'm her, or, well, something . . ._ '

InuYasha closed the book and pushed it aside.

"Finish that entry?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah," he said, clearing his suddenly scratchy voice. "Yeah, I read enough."

'I _never even thought about what it was doing to Kagome,_ ' he thought with a sigh full of self-disgust. ' _Or about what_ I _was doing to her . . ._ _Baka!_ '

"Kagome?"

"Hmm?"

"Did it hurt? When Kikyou took part of your soul?"

Her sigh was soft, and her fingers stilled for a moment before resuming their task. "No . . . not really. It just felt a little weird, like every second of my life was pulled away, and then I went numb."

He flinched. She didn't see it. "How did you call your soul back?"

She shrugged as though she thought the answer was a simple thing. "I heard you yelling. I thought you needed me."

' _I did . . . I still do . . ._ ' His ears would have drooped if Kagome hadn't still been rubbing them. "Aren't you sick of my ears yet?"

"Nope."

"What's with your fascination with them? It's kind of sick, you know."

"Nothing sick about it," she argued. "They're warm, and they're fuzzy, and they're _cute_."

"Keh."

She gasped, fingers stopping abruptly. He could feel her push aside his hair and gently run her fingertips along the base of his ears. She uttered a strangled sort of almost-moan, and she said, "InuYasha? What . . . You have scars on your ears?"

Quickly he sat up, pulling away from Kagome's touch, and he couldn't meet her concerned gaze. "Do I?" he hedged.

"What happened?" she asked quietly, her voice full of sadness, confusion. "How did you get them?"

"It was nothing," he replied quickly, angrily, hating the compassion she showed him, despising the weakness that the scars showed. Mostly, though, he loathed the painful memories that they represented. "It was a long time ago."

"InuYasha . . . ?"

She reached out to touch him. He jerked away as the tide of recollections overcame him. He stalked to the window, threw it open, and leaped out into the night.

Kagome ran to the window and watched him as he wandered across the courtyard and hopped into the branches of the God Tree.

She hadn't noticed the scars before. ' _InuYasha doesn't scar_ ,' she thought as a soft keening noise spilled out of her. ' _I've seen him endure injury after injury, and he_ never _scars . . ._ ' She shook her head, her hands covering her mouth. ' _How could I not have seen those before?_ '

                                                                         

She sighed. It wasn't surprising since they were flush against the base of his ears almost even with his skull. Buried under his thick hair, they were little more than thin, hairless lines. But they were too straight, too deliberate, and Kagome winced even as her mind tried to deny the suspicion that welled up inside her chest.

It looked like someone had tried to cut off InuYasha's ears.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

 _Sobbing, wailing, he couldn't help the noises that escaped despite his resolve not to let them see him cry. He tried to run, tried to hide. There were too many of them, and he was too small, too confused . . . too frightened. They caught him, held him down . . . "Mama!_ "

" _Your Mama is dead because of you, half-breed_."

" _Mama!_ "

InuYasha squeezed his eyes closed, willed away the bitter image of the memories that still had the skill to draw blood. They wouldn't let go.

" _I want Mama," he whimpered in the darkened room. Alone and scared and yet somehow knowing that Mother wasn't coming to save him. They said she was dead . . . What did that mean?_

The sliver of moon was high in the sky. He felt the chill winds hit him, blowing his hair, whipping his haori. He didn't feel the cold. Staring at the weak moon in the sky reminded him of the long, bitter nights after he'd escaped _them_. All he could recall was that he had to run away by the light of the moon, on a very cold night.

 _His bare feet burned as he wandered across the frost, the tears on his face had frozen in solid silvery streaks. He'd sought refuge in a small alcove, huddled against the rocks to keep warm. He hadn't known then that the rocks made him colder_.

' _Wake up, InuYasha. Do you wish to freeze?_ "

 _He heard the voice but couldn't answer. As if it were a dream, he opened his eyes but couldn't see past the haze that engulfed his vision_.

" _Get up and move. If you lay down in this cold, you will not rise again_."

He'd forced himself to do as the voice had instructed. He ran all night. In the morning, he clawed his way up a tree and had fallen asleep in the branches high above.

InuYasha scowled as the memory faded away. He hadn't thought of that night in years. He hadn't known who had spoken to him at the time. When he was finally able to see clearly, the man was gone but InuYasha had followed his scent, hoping to find him. He'd smelled so familiar that, even as a child, InuYasha had instinctively known that the being was family.

' _Sesshoumaru_ ,' InuYasha thought as his scowl deepened. ' _Why did you save me back then?'_

"InuYasha? Do you want to come back inside?" He didn't make any gesture to show that he'd heard Kagome. She stood below, staring up at him. "I'll leave my window open for you, okay? If you get cold . . ."

He heard her sigh, heard her turn to go back inside. Suddenly he hopped down, swept her into his arms and jumped back into Goshinboku. He set her down on the branch and scooted back, staring at the bark between them. She remained silent, waiting for him to speak. He drew a deep breath, unable to decide where he could possibly start.

"They tried to cut them off," he finally said, his voice no more than a whisper in the night. She made a sound somewhere between a sob and a growl. Still he didn't look at her. "After my mother died, they said that I could stay but only if I looked like them."

Drawing a steadying breath, he blinked slowly before speaking again. "I was little then, I was scared. I remember wondering why they'd do that . . . I remember that it hurt . . . I tried to run away. They caught me, and they held me down, and my mother's father tried to cut them off."

"InuYasha . . ."

He shook his head stubbornly, needing to tell her, as though he had to make her understand. The pain was a bitter thing. He dug his claws into the branch and swallowed a few times to get rid of the rising lump in his throat, the one that threatened to choke him if he didn't keep talking. "I kept calling for her---for Mother. I didn't understand for the longest time, why she didn't come. It wasn't until later that I figured out what it meant, to die."

Kagome shook her head. "You don't have to tell me this. I know it hurts you."

"I think that was worse than any other injury I've had since. I didn't think my ears were ever going to heal. They just kept bleeding . . ." He drew a deep breath. "Anyway, that's where the scars came from."

"And that's why you don't like anyone to touch your ears."

"Yeah."

She shook her head slowly, as though she didn't understand why anyone would have done such a thing. "Why didn't you tell me? All this time I've tried to get you to let me touch your ears, and . . . I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You don't," he muttered.

"I'm so selfish . . . InuYasha . . ."

He didn't look up but he could smell the salt of her tears. "Kagome? Don't . . ."

She sniffled and heaved a shaky sigh. "Why would they _do_ that? I don't understand how _anyone_ could do that, and---" She cut herself off viciously as a sob escaped. Clumsily, InuYasha reached out, wiped her cheeks.

"Don't cry, not for me."

And then his arms were full of Kagome. She threw herself against him, burying her face in his haori as she sobbed harder. Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her. ' _Why is it that her tears are enough? Why do they . . . heal me?_ '

He held her until her crying stopped, until she wound down to hiccups and stuttered breaths. Finally she pulled back and turned away only to hold out a small wrapped package. With a watery smile---all the more endearing for the cautious hope in her face as she offered him the gift---she shrugged and laughed self-consciously.

"What's this?" he asked, almost afraid to take the package.

She pushed it closer to him and sighed. "It's not much. You'll probably think it's stupid."

He took it and slowly tore off the paper. He blinked in surprise as he stared at the book in his hands. "A book?"

"It's a journal. You don't have to write it in, if you don't want to. I just thought maybe . . . if you wanted to . . . you could put your painful memories in that. Then you'd never have to think about them again."

He frowned as he stared at the volume in his hands. ' _Maybe someday_ ,' he thought. ' _Just not . . . yet_.'

She shook her head and forced a smile. "Told you it was stupid. Here, I'll go make you some ramen or something . . ."

He caught the hand she held out for the book. "Thank you . . . no one's ever really given me anything before."

Kagome stared at him for a long moment. With a small smile, she leaned over and brushed her lips over his cheek.

InuYasha's eyes widened in shock as he felt heat rush to the surface of his skin. Thanking whatever entities were listening, he could only be grateful that it was dark. He cleared his throat and gathered her close. "Let's get you back inside before you freeze."

She giggled softly. "Pathetic human?"

"Keh."

 

 

 

 

 


	15. Date

Kagome breezed into the bedroom from the hallway and stopped short, seeing InuYasha sitting in the window staring outside. She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest as she watched with a smile as InuYasha slowly turned his head to look at her.

"Two more exams," she remarked as she shoved herself away from the door and headed for her desk. "I suppose you'll want to leave right away?"

" _Hells_ yes," he answered with a snort, as though it was already a done deal. "No complaining, either. We've been here all fucking week."

She sank down in her chair and straightened her sweater sleeve. "I wasn't complaining. I miss everyone." She frowned as she toyed with the cuff at her wrist. "But tonight . . ."

"Keh!"

Falling silent as Kagome fiddled with the plastic thing she called a computer, InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga and settled back to sharpen the beloved sword. After five minutes of it, Kagome cleared her throat. InuYasha glanced up at her. She was staring at him in her, 'We-Are-Not-Amused' way, and he shook his head slowly. "Something wrong?"

"I can't concentrate when you're doing that," she remarked dryly. "Can't you find something else to do while I take this exam?"

InuYasha snorted but dropped Tetsusaiga back into the scabbard. ' _I'm_ leaving _her alone_ ,' he thought with a scowl as he turned his attention back out the window. ' _What the hell else does she want? I'm not talking, am I? I try to be considerate, and she growls at me anyway. Besides that, she ought to be_ grateful _. I protect her with Tetsusaiga, for the love of heaven! Wench!_ ' He snorted again.

Kagome sighed and sat back, crossing her arms over her chest as she sucked in one cheek and lifted her eyebrows at InuYasha. He glanced at her then looked back, blinking in confusion at the obvious irritation on her face. "What'd I do now?"

"You're scraping your claws on the window frame," she remarked, arching her eyebrows a little higher.

He looked down at his hands with a guilty flinch. "Sorry," he grudgingly allowed.

She shook her head and smiled. Retrieving her diary, she held it out to him and shrugged. "Maybe this will keep you occupied long enough for me to do this?"

He sent her a look designed to let her know that he didn't like the way she'd said that. She laughed. He heaved a loud sigh of protest and jerked the window open. "We've got doors!" she hollered as he lit on the ground.

"Keh!"

Two leaps later, he was lounging in Goshinboku with the diary and another ticked-off sigh. ' _She treats me like a damn pup_ ,' he fumed as he scowled at the book. ' _Throw the doggie a bone so he'll be good for awhile_.' His glare darkened. ' _I ought to go back without her! Keh! That'd show her!_ '

He sighed as his ears drooped. Even if he went back he'd just mope by the well till she came through, and he knew it. ' _Damn!_ ' Glowering at the diary again, InuYasha grudgingly opened it up and scanned the page for the place where he'd left off reading.

' _Baka, baka, baka, baka, baka! Sometimes he drives me so crazy I could just scream! Take today, for example! He had to get into another fight with Sesshoumaru, which, okay, so he can't just run away from him. Sesshoumaru is convinced that he deserves Tetsusaiga, and so he comes after InuYasha to try to claim it, but this time, it really was a much fiercer battle than the last time. Sesshoumaru shoved his hand right through InuYasha's stomach. Sesshoumaru had gotten a human arm with a jewel shard embedded in it so that he could touch Tetsusaiga without being injured by the sword's barrier. I'm not sure if that was what caused it, but when we got back to the village InuYasha said he wanted to talk to me. I should have known he was up to something_.'

InuYasha made a face as he read Kagome's journal. He had almost forgotten about that. It struck him again, how worried he'd been at the time. He'd barely managed to block Tetsusaiga's strike to shield Kagome from the brunt of the impact . . . It had been too close, and he knew it. The idea of something happening to her was enough to turn his guts inside out.

' _He hugged me. Just like that. No real reason. Just a hug. A really warm hug. It was the first real hug I've ever gotten from a boy, err, guy, err, hanyou, err, non-family male. I didn't know what to do or what to say. It isn't like him to touch anyone without a good reason, and for a moment, I really thought he wanted to hug me. I thought, maybe . . . Ah, Kagome, who are you kidding? InuYasha loves Kikyou. He still loves Kikyou. I think the real reason he hugged me was because he wanted the Shikon no Kakera. Once he snatched those, he shoved me into the well and yelled at me to go home . . ._ '

' _Nice_ ,' InuYasha thought with a grimace. ' _I really am an ass . . . wait . . . did she_ want _me to hug her?_ ' As he reread the passage, his ears flattened. Yes, maybe she did. ' _A_ huge _ass_ ,' he amended.

He lifted his chin, pointing his nose toward Kagome's window and sniffed. She was still taking her exam, it seemed. He could smell her anxiety. He'd read enough of her diary to last him awhile. Still, there wasn't anything he could do until she finished the last of her exams.

' _I checked the well before I went to school. I was hoping I'd find a shard or that it would let me through, at least long enough so that I could tell BakaYasha what I thought of his underhanded, devious, low-down, egomaniacal, mean, rotten trick to get the shards from me. Unfortunately, I couldn't sense anything, so I went on to school. It was one of those days, I swear I should have crawled under my bed and died. As if it wasn't bad enough that Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi kept bugging me for details about InuYasha, Houjou asked me out on a date, too. I mean, Houjou is nice enough, and a perfect gentleman, unlike a certain hanyou I know, but he's just not 'the one'. How am I supposed to concentrate on the movie when my mind is five hundred years in the past?_ '

InuYasha growled and reigned in the overwhelming need to shred the journal to confetti. He stuck it inside his haori instead. "She had a _date_?" he seethed, dropping out of the tree and leaping toward her window. He sighed and stopped mid-crouch. ' _You shoved her down the well, baka_ ,' his conscience informed him, ' _and what the fuck is a 'date'? I know what a 'Houjou' is. I remember meeting that scrawny little bastard._ ' He cracked his knuckles as he relished the idea of tearing Houjou limb from limb. ' _I could take him . . ._ '

His eye narrowed as he glowered at Kagome's open window. He might not know exactly what a date was, but he had a feeling that it wasn't something he wanted Kagome running around doing, especially if it included Houjou.

InuYasha shifted his pose—knees spread, hands on the ground—as he frowned in concentration and tried to figure out what he could do about what he'd read this time.

"InuYasha? Did Kagome kick you out of her room?"

InuYasha's scowl darkened as Souta stepped out of the shrine and stopped next to him. "Keh! No."

Souta looked confused. "Then what are you doing out here? Are you sure she didn't—"

"Yes, I'm sure!" he snarled. "I was just thinking."

Souta deliberately took his time before casually offering, "Maybe I could help you."

"Keh. I doubt it." The hanyou's expression turned thoughtful, and he cocked his head to the side. "What do you know about this baka, Houjou?"

Souta crossed his arms over his chest, and he looked surprised. "Houjou?   Nothing, really. He used to come around here to see Kagome and to bring her gifts. He hasn't been by in a long time, though, not since Kagome started internet school." He made a face. "He wasn't very cool. Why do you want to know?"

InuYasha wasn't very reassured by Souta's assessment. "No reason. Beat it."

Souta laughed and headed toward the stairs that led to the street. "See you, InuYasha!"

He watched the boy go with his scowl still in place. Finally he stood up and stomped toward the door.

"InuYasha? Is that you?"

InuYasha followed the sound of Mrs. Higurashi's voice. She was in the kitchen, teetering on a chair as she pulled things out of a cabinet. She was in trouble, from the looks of it, and was about to drop a stack of bowls. InuYasha grabbed the woman and the bowls before they both crashed to the floor.

"Thank you!" Mrs. Higurashi said with a bright smile as InuYasha set her on her feet.

"Keh."

"I was just cleaning the cupboards . . . getting started on fall cleaning." She leaned her head to the side as she stared at InuYasha. "Is something wrong?"

InuYasha stared at her mulishly for a moment before dragging Kagome's diary out of his haori and dropping it on the table. Mrs. Higurashi looked rather shocked and yet somehow amused. "I _hate_ that book," he grumbled, jabbing a clawed finger at the cover of the journal.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded slowly. "I will assume that my daughter knows you have her diary, and why don't you tell me why it is you hate it?"

"I wouldn't just _take_ her diary, no," InuYasha growled, offended that Mrs. Higurashi would even allude to that.   She started to reassure him but stopped when InuYasha's ears suddenly drooped. "What's a 'date'?"

"Let me fix you some tea, InuYasha."

She hurriedly filled two cups and retrieved a package of chocolate pocky before sinking down at the table. InuYasha sat, too, and dejectedly stared at the table.

"You want to know what a date is?"

He jerked his head once.

Mrs. Higurashi opened the pocky and offered it to him. He shook his head and sat back. "Well, a date is what young people do in this era to find out if they really like one another enough to pursue a relationship."

"A _what_?" InuYasha bellowed, shooting to his feet and sending his chair flying back. ' _I'll track that little bastard down and introduce him to Tetsusaiga . . ._ '

Mrs. Higurashi stood and grabbed InuYasha's arm, soothing him gently back into his chair again. "If you're thinking of Kagome's dates with Houjou, nothing ever came of them. Kagome really wasn't interested in the young man."

" _Dates?"_ he choked out. "More than _one_?" He cracked his knuckles. ' _Fucking dead . . ._ '

"Were you interested in taking my daughter on a date?"

"Fuck—"

"InuYasha!"

"Sorry," he grumbled at the censure in Mrs. Higurashi's gentle voice and flushed.

"You're forgiven. Were you?"

"Hadn't thought about it," he mumbled. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, trying to force himself to ask the question that was foremost in his mind. "What do you _do_ on a date?" he finally managed to ask.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled. "Whatever the two of you might enjoy. There are lots of things you two could do."

InuYasha dragged his claws across the table top, mindful not to gouge the wood. A date. It sounded like a disaster waiting to happen but Kagome's journal entry taunted him. ' _Houjou's just not 'the one'. How am I supposed to concentrate on the movie when my mind is five hundred years in the past?'_

' _Five hundred years in the past? With . . . me?_ '

Slowly, he lifted his gaze to lock with Mrs. Higurashi's as she calmly sipped her tea. If it had been Sango or Miroku or even old Kaede, he never would have asked. Something about Mrs. Higurashi had always reminded him of his mother, and because of that, he didn't feel quite as stupid about asking the question that came next despite the rising embarrassment and the subsequent feeling of inadequacy. "Would you . . . um, could you . . . help me?"

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

' _Done_.'

Kagome let her head fall back as she heaved a sigh of relief that her exams were over, at least for now. She might not have to take tests as often anymore, but the ones she did have to take were enough to drain her, both mentally as well as physically. It had taken nearly three hours for the English test, and the history test she'd just finished had taken another two and a half hours. She felt a bit light-headed from concentrating so hard, but all in all, she thought she had done well.

' _InuYasha's been extra quiet_ ,' she mused. ' _Wonder what he's doing?_ ' She made a face, asking herself if really should have given InuYasha her diary in an effort to preoccupy him. ' _Desperate times call for desperate measures_ ,' she reasoned. There was no way she would have been able to concentrate on her exams at all if she hadn't given him the diary. She shook her head as she stood up and stretched before wandering over to the window to see if the hanyou was still sitting in Goshinboku.

"How were your exams, dear?"

Kagome turned away from the window and let out a deep breath as her mother crossed the room to offer her a cup of tea, pausing next to the desk to set down Kagome's diary. "Thanks, Mama. I think I did well. This smells great!" She smelled the tea appreciatively, eyes closing in dreamy enjoyment before she lifted the cup to her lips. "Mama, where's InuYasha?"

"Hmm, I think he's a bit preoccupied at the moment. Why don't you change into that pretty new dress I bought you? I'd like to see you wear it at least once before it gets ripped to shreds in the feudal era."

Kagome grimaced. Her mother didn't comment often on the dangers that Kagome faced on the other side of the well, but she had ruined enough of her clothing that Kagome figured it was a comment that had been long in coming. "Seems like a waste to wear it around the house," she remarked as she set the tea aside. "I think I'll just make sure everything's packed. InuYasha wanted to go back as soon as my exams were done."

"I talked him into staying one more night," Mrs. Higurashi said. "Besides, I thought it'd be nice to go out to dinner for once."

She shot her mother a suspicious look. "I'll buy that you could talk him into staying one more night, but how did you convince InuYasha to go out to dinner?"

Mrs. Higurashi paused on her way out of the room, hand on the door that she had started to pull closed behind her. "I _asked_ him."

Kagome smiled as her mother closed the door. It wasn't the first time that she'd noticed that InuYasha seemed to listen to Mrs. Higurashi more often than not.

With a soft giggle, she shuffled through her closet to find the new dress. It wasn't fancy but it was nicer than most of the skirts that she normally wore. The faun colored material looked like suede but wasn't nearly as unforgiving. Tailored to fit to the hips, the short-sleeved dress managed to accentuate her curves without being too tight, and the flared skirt added a flirty feel to it, saving the dress from being too formal in design.

The only part of the dress she didn't like was the neckline. It wasn't low cut but it was lower cut than she normally wore. She made a face and tried to tug the edges together. When that didn't work, she tugged at the back of the dress. She sighed and dragged on a pair of matching dress boots. ' _Who are you kidding, Kagome? Does it matter what you wear? InuYasha won't notice, anyway. He_ never _does_.'

Kagome squared her shoulders and stared at her reflection in the full length mirror on the back of her door with a discerning eye. She had to admit, it wasn't bad.

Suddenly, she rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at the girl staring back at her. With a giggle, she grabbed her brush and pulled up her hair into a high ponytail then pulled her long tweed coat out of the back of the closet. Draping it over her arm, she opened her door and headed downstairs.

Kagome followed voices into the living room. Grandpa glanced at her and looked back again, his eyes widening as he stared at his granddaughter. Mrs. Higurashi smiled. "You look lovely, darling."

Kagome frowned at her mother. She hadn't changed clothes at all and was still wearing the same old dress that she always wore when she cleaned the house. Before she could comment, though, Grandpa spoke. "You'll march right back to your room and change this instant, Kagome!" he commanded.

Mrs. Higurashi laid a hand on Grandpa's arm. "Nonsense, Grandpa. She looks fine."

"Why haven't you changed?" Kagome asked as Grandpa started blustering about women, modesty, and 'unmentionables'. Kagome ignored him.

"Oh, I'm not going," Mrs. Higurashi said with a laugh.

"Mama?"

"Turn around, Kagome."

She did. The smile she had worn all the way downstairs faded as she gasped, eyes widening in disbelief. Her fingers rose to flutter at her lips, and she shook her head slightly.

InuYasha stood before her—at least, she thought it was InuYasha. He was in human form but that wasn't what threw her off. Dressed in slightly baggy black dress pants and scarlet button down shirt with a black jacket over that, she barely recognized him and wouldn't have if he didn't have his signature scowl in place and his kotodama rosary still around his neck. It wasn't the clothes that fazed her.

It was the marked lack of hair that did.

His bangs were the same as always: long and unruly and hanging in his eyes, but the back of his hair---the length of it---was gone. She blinked in shock, unsure what she should or even could say. Her fingers pulled away from her mouth as she settled for pointing at him instead.

"I knew this was a stupid idea," he mumbled and turned to storm back up the stairs.

Kagome saw the ponytail at the nape of his neck and let out a rushed sigh of relief as she ran forward and caught his arm. "No, InuYasha, wait! I'm sorry . . . I thought you cut your hair, that's all."

"Keh!" He stopped and slowly turned to face her again, his scowl still in place. He didn't smile as he stared at her. He didn't have to. The warmth that lay beneath the wariness in his expression was enough to set off a slight trembling in her belly as her knees threatened to buckle. "You'll do, wench."

She smiled and ducked her head Mrs. Higurashi handed Kagome's coat to InuYasha. He held it for her while she concentrated on sticking her arms in the sleeves without incident. He was hesitant and gentle as he let go to pull her hair out from under the coat. She thought his hands were shaking just a little but discounted that idea when she turned around and saw his scowl. He didn't have any reason to be nervous, did he? She had to be imagining things . . .

"Enjoy yourselves," Mrs. Higurashi called as she followed them to the front door.

"Don't stay out too late," Souta remarked with a wink.

"She needs to change!" Grandpa hollered from the living room.

InuYasha took her hand and pulled Kagome out of the house with a sigh as he strode along the sidewalk away from the front door. He stopped at the top of the shrine steps and let go of her hand to jam his hands into his pockets, his gaze dropping to the ground as he shuffled his feet, kicking the toes of the loafers against the concrete. She grinned at his dress shoes. Knowing him, he hated them worst of all. ' _He's nervous_ ,' she realized suddenly. "InuYasha?"

"I feel stupid, but your mother said that I have to . . ."

Kagome bit her lip as blood rushed to her face. "You don't . . . we don't . . . if you want to go back . . ." She forced herself not to fidget and tried to ignore the sharp twinge of dismay that viciously twisted her stomach. ' _He doesn't want to do this at all . . ._ '

He sighed again and shifted his eyes to the side, as though he was afraid to look at her. "Kagome, will you go on a date with me?" After he said it, he made a face, obviously thinking that he sounded completely stupid. He snorted. "You don't have to say yes."

Sudden understanding dawned on her. It wasn't that he didn't want to go; he simply didn't know how to ask her . . . She smiled. "I'd love to."

He looked amazed. "You would?"

Her smile widened. "It depends. Where are you taking me?"

InuYasha grimaced. "Give me a break, wench," he grumbled as he took her hand again, dragging her down the stairs. "I've never done this before."

She giggled as she glanced over her shoulder at the shrine to wave back at her family, who were all gathered in the doorway. Grandpa was still grumbling about her dress, she could tell. Souta glanced at the old man and rolled his eyes then grinned as he gave her two thumbs up. Mrs. Higurashi wiped a tear off her cheek before she waved back. Buyo darted past their feet and sat down at the top of the shrine steps where InuYasha had asked her to go on the date. The cat meowed his goodbye as Kagome looked up at InuYasha only to find him staring back at her in that entirely unsettling way of his. "I'm glad you decided to stay tonight," she said softly.

For once, he didn't snort, and he didn't make any of his normal commentary. "Yeah," he agreed instead. "Me, too."

 

 

 

 

 


	16. Humanity

InuYasha remembered Mrs. Higurashi's instructions to hold the door open for Kagome when they reached the small restaurant near the shrine. Though not very big, it had what Mrs. Higurashi called 'ambiance', whatever that meant. If 'ambiance' meant 'dark' then the place fit the bill. Candles burned in small paper lanterns on the tables, and the place wasn't very crowded. That suited InuYasha. It never ceased to amaze him, how many people there were in Kagome's Tokyo.

"Welcome," a little man said after InuYasha followed Kagome into the restaurant. He glanced at InuYasha's waist and held his hands out. He seemed to be waiting for something. Finally he looked down at a book standing on a pedestal. "Higurashi? Party of two."

"Yeah," InuYasha replied, feeling warmth rush to the surface of his skin. Mrs. Higurashi had made the reservations and had instructed him to give their name when they arrived. He'd forgotten, which just figured. It seemed as though there was a lot to remember on a date, and InuYasha was pretty certain he was going to forget more of the instruction than he remembered before the night was over. He made a face and pushed away the feeling the vulnerable feeling caused by the exposed flesh on back of his neck and tried not to frown too much as the small man showed them to their table.

But when the little man tried to help Kagome take off her coat then proceeded to pull out chair and lift his hand to help her sit, InuYasha couldn't quite contain his growl. The waiter smiled nervously and stepped aside, allowing InuYasha to hold Kagome's chair as she sat. He draped her coat over the back of an unused chair before he sat down across from her.

He was almost scared to look at her after he was seated. Afraid that she would be angry with him for growling at the waiter, InuYasha stared at the menu the man had handed him before his hasty retreat, instead.

He sighed. He didn't recognize anything on the menu, and he dared a subversive glance at Kagome. She was gazing down at her menu, as well, though it didn't look like she was actually seeing anything but she did look like she was amused and when her lips quirked up in a small grin, InuYasha swallowed hard. Whether or not she sensed his discomfort was arbitrary. She really was enjoying herself, and that helped to assuage his acute discomfort. ' _Why can't this place just serve ramen?_ ' he wondered with an inward ' _Keh!_ '

"Do you know what you want?" Kagome asked, finally breaking the stilted silence.

InuYasha opened his mouth to lie then sighed. "Not a clue."

She smiled. Her eyes caught the candlelight. He gulped as his mouth abruptly dried out completely. "You liked steak the time Mama made it," she suggested gently.

He blinked. "That's on here?"

Her smile widened, and she nodded. "Yep."

"Okay," he agreed, closing his menu and setting it aside.

Suddenly she giggled. He arched an eyebrow at her in silent question. "I really was worried that you'd cut your hair. I'm glad you didn't."

He shrugged, relaxing just a little. "Even if I did, it'd grow back before morning."

"Really?"

"I can grow a tooth back in one night. You think I'd have a problem with hair?"

She looked relieved at that. "Where's Tetsusaiga?"

"Keh! Your mother said I couldn't bring it." Kagome hid her smile behind her hand but not before InuYasha saw it. "What's so funny?"

She gave up her attempt to hide her humor. "You're pouting."

"I don't pout."

"You do."

"Keh."

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome stole a glance at InuYasha. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, do you know how?"

"Keh."

She bit her lip and stared a moment longer but decided against saying anything else. ' _Don't let this be bad_ ,' she prayed.

"You scared?"

Her chin lifted. "I'll have you know I'm pretty good at this, so you might be surprised."

She narrowed her eyes when an evil smile surfaced on his face. "You gotta admit, wench. You're clumsy as hell."

"Am I?" she shot back as she got to her feet. "We'll just see about that."

He chuckled.

"Need some help, dog-boy?"

Slowly, he stood up, arms crossed over his chest as he smugly grinned down at her. "Keh! I don't need the help of a pathetic human like you."

"Hmm. Like I said, we'll see." She tiptoed carefully across the floor, stopping at the entrance to wait for InuYasha. To her unabashed amazement, he strode over to her as though he was completely unaffected by his ice skates.

' _He's going to make me look like a baby_ ,' she thought as he took her hand and stepped out onto the ice.

She had been coming to this indoor rink ever since she was a little, but it had been a long time since her last visit. Spending so much of her time in the past hadn't been kind to her dexterity on the ice. InuYasha, on the other hand, didn't seem to be affected in the least.

He didn't let go of her hand while they made their way around the ice. She had to admit that she was glad. Bad enough that she hadn't been on the ice in so long. It would be horrible if she fell in front of him. "Are you sure you're not a feline hanyou?" she questioned, staring around at the nearly empty rink.

"Am I supposed to answer that?"

She giggled then gasped as she hit a rough spot on the ice. He caught her around the waist and steadied her. "Hopelessly clumsy," he muttered.

"If you weren't human I'd say 'it'."

"You wouldn't."

"And how do you know?"

He shrugged. "Because I'd drag you down with me, on accident, of course."

"Have you done this before?"

He sighed. "Not with these things," he said, staring down at his feet with a scowl. "When you're running for your life, you learn to run on everything, ice included."

"You don't have to run anymore."

He shook his head slowly and stared at her, determination lending his eyes an unnatural light. "I _refuse_ to run anymore."

He stared at her in that familiar but unsettling way, the same way he had the night by the fire. She didn't look away, and she didn't run. ' _If he was hanyou right now, he'd hear my heart_ ,' she thought.

"Kagome?"

She couldn't find her voice as her eyes locked with his. She opened her mouth to answer but no sound would come. Human for the night, maybe, but that really didn't make him any less dangerous. He was still InuYasha, and hanyou or human, he still embodied every single trait that she had come to depend upon. She didn't think her heart could beat any faster but it did. The look on his face as his gaze dropped to her lips was enough to send her pulse skyrocketing as her heart hammered against her ribcage, as her hands trembled and her knees threatened to give way under her.

He sighed and looked away. Disappointment welled up in her, and she seriously considered saying 'it' to vent her frustration.

"I'm glad we came here."

Her irritation melted away as she glanced at him. He looked almost happy, and that was enough.

They skated around the rink a few more times in companionable silence. Kagome caught him gazing at her more than once though each time he'd blush a little and quickly look away.

She felt a little more confident with her footing, and she pulled away from InuYasha, increasing her pace as she managed to turn herself. It might have been awhile since she'd been on the ice but it was all quickly coming back to her. Staring over her shoulder, judging the distance, she built up speed and managed a clean kick off of the ice. Amazingly, she landed the double toe-loop without a hitch, and by the time she turned her blades to skid to a stop two feet from InuYasha, she was smiling. ' _I'll have to tell Mama that those years of lessons paid off._ '

Ice skating had always energized Kagome, given her a sense of flying, the same freedom that she felt when InuYasha ran with her through the forest. Before she thought about it, she threw herself against InuYasha and kissed his cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. "Did Mama tell you?"

"She might have mentioned it." He didn't let go of her right away. She couldn't read his expression. Eyes bright, not a smile but close, he tilted his head to the side and nodded slowly. He let go of her and held out his hand, and she took it, content to let him set the pace as he led her around the ice once more.

Kagome stole a glance at him only to find him staring down at her. "So," he mumbled with a sigh, "this is a date, huh?"

"Nope."

His smile faded though his eyes still held a hint of amusement. "No?"

She lowered her chin, staring at their feet as the glided over the ice. "This is the best date _ever_."

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Tetsusaiga was fine to be left behind in this instance only because InuYasha, in human form, cannot transform. (Fateful Night in Togenkyo, Pt. 1). The main obstacle would be prying his hands off the sword for him to leave it behind . . . LoL!_


	17. Reality

Kagome rolled her eyes as InuYasha leaped out of the well with the huge box of ramen. She hid her amusement, though, since he was still in a temperamental frame of mind after the Great Tetsusaiga Caper.

Feeling vengeful that Kagome hadn't listened and therefore hadn't changed into a more demure dress before leaving with InuYasha on their date, Grandpa had covered Tetsusaiga with a lot of Ofuda and the secret known as 'sacred duct tape.' InuYasha had spent the better part of the evening cursing Grandpa and picking off the tape with the aide of Kagome's pocket knife. He was still mumbling, cursing, and basically really irritated when she went to bed around midnight.

"Kagome! InuYasha!"

Kagome glanced up just in time to see the tiny brown blur come flying at her. "Shippou! I missed you!" she assured the squirmy kitsune with a giggle. "Where are Sango and Miroku?"

"Oh, they're coming," Shippou replied, waving his hand at the forest path. "They've been acting strange lately."

"Strange, how?" InuYasha asked, leaning to the side to see out from behind the box of ramen.

Shippou dove for Kagome's backpack. "Staring at each other all the time and never really saying anything . . . it's really weird."

Kagome grinned and gently shooed the kit away from her bag with a flutter of the hand. "InuYasha, do you think that Sango and Miroku might have finally told each other how they feel?"

"What? You mean that Sango 'feels' Miroku's hand on her ass way too often?" InuYasha asked.

The loud crack of flesh meeting flesh echoed through the clearing. Moments later, Sango stomped toward them from the forest with a disgruntled look on her pretty face. Miroku trailed after her with the tell-tale Handprint-of-Love on his cheek.

Kagome hugged the youkai exterminator with a happy smile. "Kagome! It's been so long! How are you? Did you finish your exams?"

"Getting yourself slapped again, Miroku?" InuYasha remarked as he shifted the box of ramen and reached over to pluck the backpack away from Kagome. She reached to retrieve it. He turned so she couldn't get it. The hanyou chuckled as the miko rolled her eyes.

"Now, InuYasha, I can't help myself! It is so perfect!" the monk responded, holding his hands out in a cradling gesture directed toward the part of Sango's anatomy that he'd already fondled to earn the youkai exterminator's formidable ire. "I mean, _look_ at it!"

InuYasha rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. "Fucking pervert."

"So what did you do in Kagome's time while she was busy taking her exams?" Miroku asked as they set off back toward the village.

"Keh. There's _nothing_ to do there," InuYasha grumbled.

"Hey, InuYasha . . . why is your face all red?" Shippou asked, leaning forward on the hanyou's shoulder to stare at his countenance.

"It's _not_ ," InuYasha growled. "You'd better run before I set this stuff down, runt."

"Ahh!" Shippou screamed, leaping off InuYasha's shoulder and hightailing it toward the forest path.

InuYasha cracked a smile as he watched the disappearing kitsune. Then he caught Miroku's raised-eyebrow-ed expression and quickly schooled his features.

Miroku grinned, as though something made sense to him. " _Interesting_ . . . I can't recall ever seeing that particular shade of red before . . . Sango, what would you call it?"

"I'd call it 'Monk-In-Pain' if you don't back off," InuYasha snarled.

"Has anyone delivered a message for InuYasha while we were gone?" Kagome interrupted, attempting to distract the monk and the youkai exterminator, who were still staring at InuYasha's face with avid interest. The longer they stared, the redder InuYasha's face grew, and the redder he grew, the louder his growl escalated. "Hell- _o?_ "

Sango covered a smile with her hand and turned her questioning stare on Kagome. Kagome knew that look and deliberately tried to avoid it even though she knew that Sango would demand answers when they were alone. "A message?" Sango finally echoed. "Actually, there was. A messenger from one named Katosan said he had information for InuYasha about a book?"

InuYasha turned to demand, "What sort of message? When?"

"Three days ago," Miroku supplied. "What sort of book?"

"It doesn't matter," InuYasha grumbled. "I'll leave as soon as I drop this stuff off with the old woman."

"I'm coming with you," Kagome spoke up, refraining from commenting on InuYasha's vile habit of calling Kaede, the old village miko, such a disrespectful term.

"Why don't we all go?" Miroku suggested. "A bit of travel wouldn't be remiss. All this rest isn't good for the fighting skills."

"You'll just slow us down," InuYasha replied with a snort.

Kagome glanced over at InuYasha. He was looking straight ahead. She didn't miss the sidelong look he shot her, though, just before his ears flicked. Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. ' _That's blackmail!_ ' she fumed. His meaning was clear. If Sango and Miroku came along, he wouldn't let her touch his ears.

She sighed. ' _Then again . . . he is getting awfully close to reading some things that he might not like in my diary_ ,' she reasoned, thinking of the book in her backpack. If he reacted that badly to her disaster of a date with Houjou, how would he react to her entries about their run-ins with Kikyou? Maybe, if their friends were with them, he wouldn't take them so hard . . . Kagome hadn't been cruel but she had been honest.

"I think they should come along," Kagome piped up, praying that InuYasha didn't know what she was thinking.

His head swung around to shoot her an incredulous look. "Kagome—"

"Yes, InuYasha?" she asked, careful to keep her tone light, casual.

"What about Shippou? Isn't it getting a little cold to be dragging him along?"

Sango's eyebrows shot up. "Since when do you care if Shippou's out in the cold?"

"Keh!" InuYasha flushed again. "I don't. _Kagome_ does."

"Shippou has fur, and he always sleeps in my bedroll with me."

Miroku stopped suddenly, bringing the rest of them to a halt, as well. "All right, what's going on? You two are behaving strangely— _very_ strangely. Care to tell the rest of us what's happened to bring about this change?"

" _Nothing_ ," twin voices replied.

Miroku stared from one to the other as a smile slowly broke over his features. He raised his hand perpendicular to his face and bowed slightly. "Ah, I see. A matching set of 'Monk-In-Pain'-red faces. _Very_ interesting."

Sango coughed to cover her amusement.

InuYasha turned on his heel and stomped off with a very loud, "Keh!"

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha sat in the tree with his scowl in place. ' _Why'd she do that?_ ' he asked himself again. ' _I thought she liked being with me . . . I thought . . ._ '

He hopped to the ground and dropped a couple of logs onto the fire before he surveyed his sleeping friends. Sango slept with Kirara in her huge fire-cat form wrapped around the slayer. Miroku slept against Kirara's back. Kagome was curled up with Shippou in her bedroll. For some reason, it bothered InuYasha to see her sheltering the kitsune without anyone sheltering _her_. ' _Keh!_ ' he snorted inwardly, ' _you're getting soft, baka! She's strong . . . for a pathetic human. She'll be just fine_.' He stared at her a moment longer before stomping over to sit behind her sleeping form, using himself as a windbreak for her.

It was almost dawn. The forest was hushed, still. The night creatures were making their ways home. The daylight creatures were still sleeping. The quiet that met at such times seemed unnatural, eerie. InuYasha's ears flicked, twitched. He'd been attacked during this time too often. All the foul beasts of the earth liked this time of night.

Lulled as he stared into the fire, InuYasha shook himself and sighed. ' _There's room on her bedroll . . . and you know Kagome wouldn't care._ '

His eyes widened as his gaze fell to the blankets behind Kagome's huddled body. ' _Keh! She'd osuwari me all the way to hell, and_ —' He could feel the flush riding up his cheeks and snorted. ' _I'm_ guarding _her . . . what the—? Uh-uh! If that perverted monk woke up and saw me lying down with her, he'd_ really _get the wrong idea, and I'd never hear the end of it . . . No fucking thanks._ ' Still he couldn't drag his gaze away. A soft whine escaped, and the heat in his cheeks intensified despite the fact that no one else knew what he was thinking.

Kagome whimpered. InuYasha leaned forward, frowning at the sadness he could smell radiating from her. The underlying fear wrenched at him, and he winced. Still deep in her sleep, she breathed out a tiny sob, and that was enough.

InuYasha carefully lifted Shippou, depositing the kitsune between Sango and Kirara. The kit whined and yawned but didn't wake. InuYasha didn't even spare him a second glance as he knelt down in front of Kagome, slowly reaching out to smooth her bangs off her face. She jerked her head to the side, as though his touch hurt her. " _N-No . . . !_ "

Her fear was increasing, overriding the sadness, and InuYasha lifted her—blankets and all—and bounded over to a tree on the outskirts of the clearing. He leaped into that tree with Kagome cradled safely against his chest and settled back against the tree trunk. "Kagome?" he said, trying to wake her.

She sobbed again, and he flinched. Her upset was starting to affect him, and he whined as he shook her.

' _It's one of those nightmares_ ,' he realized. ' _Like the one she had before . . ._ ' He hated her nightmares. She didn't have them often, but he always felt so helpless when she did. He wanted to wake her up, wanted to soothe her. Holding her as close as he could, he tried to calm her. The action made it worse. "Kagome . . . oi, wench!" he called as he tried shaking her again. ' _Think, baka! How did you make it go away the last time?_ '

' _The lullaby . . .'_

InuYasha wrapped his arms tighter around her, closing his eyes and taking a moment to recall the words that his mother used to sing to him . . .

 

" _The night wind whispers and makes you smile_ ,  
 _Don't fret, little one, I'll be here all the while_ ,  
 _Sleep, gently sleep, in my heart you belong_ ,  
 _Sleep, gently sleep, I'll protect you with this song_ . . ."

 

Gradually, she stopped shaking. Her expression relaxed. She sighed in her sleep as the nightmare receded. She snuggled closer against his chest, against his heart.

 

" _Child of my heart, child of heaven_ ,  
 _Sent to me and my soul was forgiven_ ,  
 _You give me peace and joy and love_ ,  
 _Sent to me from the stars high above_ . . ."

 

" . . . InuYasha?" He looked down at Kagome. She blinked sleepily and leaned back against his arm. She still looked like she wasn't completely awake. "You came for me after all."

"Were you gone?" he asked gently.

"Mmm. Everyone was gone in the dark . . . but you came. You always come. You always save me."

' _I didn't save you, Kagome . . . You saved me, didn't you?_ ' InuYasha smiled as her eyes closed again. "Go back to sleep, wench."

Her hands emerged from the copious folds of the blankets to rest against his haori. She settled against him with a happy sigh. "You were singing," she murmured. He could tell from the tone of her voice that she had to fight to say that much. "Nice . . ."

"Keh."

That was the wrong thing to do, he discovered. She sat back and rubbed her eyes with balled-up fists. "That was a compliment," she remarked as the traces of sleep fell away from her voice. She stared at him for a moment then shook her head. "You sang to me before, didn't you? I thought it was a dream . . . it was the same song."

"You were having one of those nightmares," he remarked stiffly, unable to meet her steady gaze.

"Where'd you learn that song? I've never heard it before."

It should have been obvious from his demeanor that he didn't want to talk about the song at all. It should have been obvious from the scowl on his face that he wanted to drop the entire conversation. She wouldn't let go of it. "It was your mother, wasn't it? She sang that song to you."

"Can't remember," he grumbled.

He knew that she could tell he was lying. She didn't call him on it, though. She lay back down, using him as a pillow as she yawned. "Will you sing it again?"

"Only when you have nightmares."

"Can I rub your ears?"

"Your journal is over there."

"Just for a minute?"

"Keh."

"Are you comfortable?"

"No. My ears hurt from your babbling."

"I don't babble."

"What do you call it?"

"I'm concerned, that's all."

He grinned into the night. "I'll let you know."

"Know what?"

"If I get uncomfortable."

"Liar."

"Go to sleep, wench. It's almost morning."

She was silent for maybe thirty seconds. "Have you been awake all night?"

"Keh. What do you think?"

"I think," she said with a sigh as she toyed with the kotodama rosary, "I think I could sit here with you, like this, forever."

' _Me, too_.' He pulled her blanket up to her chin. "Noisy wench."

"Dog-boy."

"Pathetic human."

"BakaYasha."

He chuckled.

 

 

 

 

 


	18. Blackmail

“These are remarkable, Kagome. What was it you called them again?”

Kagome looked over at Miroku. Seated behind Sango on Kirara’s back, the monk seemed very pleased. Kagome grinned. “They’re thermal underwear. Glad you like them.”

Sango shifted uncomfortably. Kagome tried not to laugh. While Sango undoubtedly appreciated the added layer of warmth of her thermals, Kagome didn’t doubt that the exterminator didn’t care for wearing the extra garments.

“Something wrong, Sango?” Miroku leaned forward to whisper in the slayer’s ear.

She could feel herself flushing and prayed that no one else saw it. Glancing out of the corner of her eye and then turning her head to blatantly stare, Sango nudged Miroku and nodded toward InuYasha and Kagome. The miko said something that only InuYasha could hear, and to Sango’s surprise, the hanyou smiled. “What do you think happened between those two on the other side of the well?” Sango asked quietly.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Miroku replied. “But it doesn’t seem like a bad thing . . . Have you noticed InuYasha’s marked lack of real temper?”

Sango nodded and was about to comment when InuYasha suddenly stopped and snarled as he stared ahead at something the rest of them couldn’t see.

“There’s a youkai approaching,” Kagome said quietly as she slid off InuYasha’s back.

“Yeah,” InuYasha agreed, pushing Kagome back without taking his eyes off the distant horizon. “Fucking mangy, hella nasty little—”

“Kouga!” Kagome exclaimed softly. She started forward only to be propelled back again by InuYasha’s hand. “InuYasha!”

“Let me handle him, wench, and keep your damn lips away from him this time.”

Sango bit down on her cheek to keep from laughing at the blatant display of jealousy.

“I told you, I only kissed his cheek to get the shards back. Don’t make me say ‘it’,” Kagome warned.

“Keh!”

“Oi! Kagome! What a sight for sore eyes! You really need some new travel companions,” Kouga said as he skidded to a stop and dealing InuYasha a blatantly hostile glare. “You look good, despite hanging around that loser. How about another kiss?”

“Eh?” Kagome squeaked. InuYasha snarled and shoved Kagome back again.

“Sango,” Miroku whispered in her ear, “I have a feeling that this is about to become very ugly.”

“I think you’re right. Now hush! I don’t want to miss it.”

“Get the hell out of here before I sharpen my claws on you,” InuYasha ground out.

“Outta my way, dog-shit. You can’t stand between me and _my_ woman,” Kouga commented as he glowered at InuYasha.

“She ain’t your woman.”

Kouga’s glare darkened. “Of course she is! _She_ kissed _me_ , dog-shit.”

“Keh! She kissed you because you blackmailed her, you bastard!”

“Jealous, mutt-face?” Kouga asked with a raised eyebrow.

InuYasha ground his teeth together and growled. “Why would I be jealous of a scrawny little wolf like you when—?”

Kagome ducked under InuYasha’s arm and stepped in front of him. “Well, Kouga, it was nice to see you but we really have to be going.”

“When what?” Sango muttered under her breath.

“Hmm. Your guess is as good as mine. We’ll have to find out,” Miroku whispered back.

“I agree.”

“Where are you off to, Kagome?” Kouga asked, deliberately ignoring InuYasha’s growled warning to back off.

She forced a bright smile. “We just have to find something of InuYasha’s. It’s fine.”

Kouga rolled his eyes. “Baka can’t keep track of his things? That doesn’t surprise me. Are you sure you don’t want to come with me yet, Kagome?”

She shot InuYasha a quick glance before turning to look at Kouga again. “I promised InuYasha I’d help him find it, so I can’t go anywhere.”

“Yeah, just be careful that he doesn’t ‘misplace’ you, too, or I’ll have to kill him.”

“ _What?”_ InuYasha bellowed. He shoved Kagome back and drew Tetsusaiga. “She’s never going anywhere with you, shit for brains!”

“She’s not marked,” Kouga said as he sniffed and crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. “You haven’t pissed on her yet, dog-shit. She’s still fair game. Until I mark her, that is, which will be as soon as things are settled in the valley.”

“Why you—”

“That’s gross!” Kagome stated loudly. “No one is going to p— _mark_ me like that!”

InuYasha’s face was as red as his haori as he growled, “Wench! Do you think I’d actually pi—?”

Kagome looked positively green. She slapped her hands over her ears and squealed, “Eww! Don’t even _say_ it.”

“ _He_ said it, _I_ didn’t!” InuYasha snarled. “Nice, Kouga, you bastard!”

“Everyone knows dogs like you lift their leg and—”

InuYasha had heard enough. In a crimson blur, he raised Tetsusaiga and started to bring it down even as the youki started to wrap around the blade. “ _Kaze no Ki_ —”

“ _Osuwari!_ ”

“ _Unngh!_ ”

“ _Would you two knock it off?”_ Kagome shrieked. Sango’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t remember ever having seen her friend quite so angry. The air around Kagome almost crackled with her rage, and her eyes were lit with furious fire. “You!” she commanded, pointing a finger at Kouga, “I’m _not_ your woman! And _you_!” she went on, her finger swinging directly to InuYasha, who was still on the ground. “Do you always have to threaten Kouga? You’re both disgusting males, and if you’re so interested in marking something, why don’t you—do _that_ —on each other? _Bakas!_ ” With that, the miko turned and stomped away.

“They’ll never learn, will they?” Shippou mourned with a shake of his head.

InuYasha stumbled to his feet and stabbed Kouga with a menacing glare as he dropped Tetsusaiga into the scabbard. He made a disgusted face as he squeezed his hands closed and flexed them open a few times. “Look what you did!” he snarled at the wolf youkai.

“What _I_ did? I wasn’t the one drawing my sword, dog-shit!”

“Keh! I don’t have time to argue with you,” InuYasha growled as he turned and stomped off after Kagome.

Kouga rolled his eyes. “Tell Kagome I’ll be back,” he called over his shoulder as he turned and sped off in the direction he had come.

“That was the weirdest meeting yet,” Shippou remarked.

Sango nodded in agreement. Moments later, Kagome’s voice rose above the other sounds of the forest. “ _Osuwari!_ ”

InuYasha yelled.

Miroku winced and jerked back as the ground beneath them trembled. “Ouch! InuYasha will be smarting from that one for days.”

Sango nodded. She knew that Kagome was just trying to appease Kouga into leaving. Still, InuYasha wouldn’t see it that way, and who could blame him? Add to that the verbal set-down she’d dealt the hanyou, and Sango sighed. “We might as well set up camp. We need a fire. I think the temperature just dropped,” she commented, thinking of InuYasha and Kagome.

“And growing colder by the second, Sango, my sweet. Don’t worry. I’ll keep you warm.”

She felt the unmistakable warmth of his hand on her bottom, and she gasped as instant color flooded her skin. “Hentai!” she exclaimed and slapped him hard enough to knock him backward off the fire-cat youkai as she slid off Kirara’s back.

Shippou rolled his eyes and stroked the transformed Kirara. “I think we’re the only normal ones left,” he remarked. Kirara mewed in reply.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome dropped her backpack on the ground and sank down on a boulder beside the rushing stream and sighed. ‘ _Why did Kouga have to show up? Every time I think we’re getting closer, something always has to interfere,_ ’ Kagome thought with a frown.

‘ _Oh, that’s not it. That’s not even close to the truth of it._ ’

She sighed and leaned her elbows on her knees, letting her cheeks drop onto her raised fists. If she were honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she missed being alone with InuYasha. Sure, she had thought it was a good idea at the time. Because of InuYasha’s past, he was always reluctant to show any sign of vulnerability to anyone, even those he considered friends. That, to him, would extend to the deal they’d made about her diary. He wouldn’t be as likely to overreact about her entries regarding Kikyou as he might have been had they been alone simply because he wouldn’t want to admit to allowing Kagome to stroke his ears.

She groaned. She missed his ears, too.

Still, there was a sort of distance between them now that Kagome hated. ‘ _I know_ why _he feels the way he does_ ,’ she thought with an inward sigh. ‘ _I know why he feels like he has to hide his ‘weaknesses’. I just wish he didn’t feel like he had to_.’

“Don’t say ‘it’.”

Kagome shifted her eyes to the side to stare at InuYasha. He looked wary, guarded, and she sighed. “Can you not fight with Kouga? I’m not planning on running off with him.”

The infamous pout was back on his face. Kagome watched in silence as he stomped over to the stream and started rubbing his hands together in the water. “Damn him!”

She straightened up. “InuYasha? Did Kouga come back?”

“Keh! Not that mangy wolf.”

She frowned. “Then what is it?”

“Your fucking grandfather and his damn tape from hell,” he growled, squeezing his hands closed and opening them wide. “Tetsusaiga’s all sticky, and now my hands are, too.”

Kagome tried not to laugh. She really did. But the irritation mixed with pouting expression on the hanyou’s face was just too cute, and she couldn’t help herself. When he glowered at her, she ducked her head as she rummaged around for the first aid kit. “I’m not hurt,” he scoffed as she opened the lid. “Can’t guarantee your grandfather will be as lucky next time I see him.”

Ripping open the small packet, Kagome pulled out an alcohol soaked towelette. “Here,” she said, holding out the cloth. “This might help.”

He made a face but took the cloth. After rubbing it on his hands and finding that the mysterious stickiness was gone, he set to work on his sword. Kagome dug out another couple of packets and tossed them down in InuYasha’s lap. Scooting forward, she reached out and caught one of his ears. He jerked away and snorted.

“You owe me,” she remarked as she leaned forward to grab his ear again.

“How do you figure?” he shot back but didn’t pull away.

“Because between you and Kouga I was completely grossed out.”

“I didn’t say it! He did!”

Kagome lifted her eyebrows at his emphatic disclaimer. “You want me to go find Kouga and rub his ears?”

“Keh.” He turned so she didn’t have to stretch to reach his ears. She rubbed his ears while he rubbed the duct tape residue off Tetsusaiga. Finally he laid the sword aside and reached back over his shoulder, his empty fingers wiggling as though he was waiting for something.

Kagome grinned and dug into her bag for the diary. ‘ _Predictable as ever, eh, InuYasha?_ ’

“Kagome?”

“Hmm?”

He sighed and turned to look at her. She didn’t miss the blinking, either. “We don’t . . . I mean, what Kouga said. We don’t . . . I wouldn’t . . .”

Kagome made a face. “I hoped not.” She dropped the diary over his shoulder and he sighed again as she started scratching gently at the base of his ears. Almost instantly, his low rumbles rewarded her efforts.

The rush of water mingled with his sounds of contentment soothed the remaining ragged edges of Kagome’s nerves. She idly toyed with his ears, and it took a moment for her to realize that he’d stopped making the happy noise. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“What?” Kagome asked as her hands fell away. “What didn’t I tell you?”

He turned his head to stare at her, his expression dark, eyes fierce, glowing. “Didn’t you think that it might have mattered to _me_?”

She drew back at the understated vehemence in his tone. “What are you talking about?”

“About the spell Kikyou put on me!”

“What spell?” she asked, her mind blanking as he grew more and more irritated.

“Keh! When she tried to drag me to hell, wench! _That_ one!”

Kagome shook her head slowly and frowned. “How could you not have known you were under a spell?”

He snorted. “Obviously because I wasn’t _meant_ to know. That’s not the point!”

“What _is_ the point?”

InuYasha dug his claws into the ground and growled in frustration. “Nothing. Never mind.”

“You brought it up.”

“You just should have told me, wench,” he grumbled. “You should have let me judge it if was important or not.”

Kagome sighed and frowned, staring hard at him while she tried to discern what was really bothering him about it. It was more than just the spell, she was sure. He was too upset, too agitated. She just didn’t know why. “What would it have changed, InuYasha? I knew you wouldn’t have willingly let her drag you to hell,” she countered softly. “But she was your first love. I _knew_ that. What I wrote in there were my feelings _at the time_.”

For some reason he looked more irritated with that.

“InuYasha?”

“Why didn’t you mention it, in here?” he said slowly, softly, holding up her journal, “that I . . . kissed her?”

Kagome sighed as it made sense to her, at last. It wasn’t really the spell that was bothering him. It was the guilt of the memories that was. “Because I didn’t _want_ to remember that. That was . . . it was your memory, not mine.”

He nodded slowly. Finally he turned again and leaned back to look at her. “My right ear itches,” he stated with an accompanying blink. Kagome rolled her eyes but complied as he opened the book once more. “Hmm, Sango, huh? This should be interesting.”

She grinned as he resumed reading, having obviously gotten to her entries about her first impressions of Sango, which, in her opinion, were completely safe, as far as InuYasha’s feelings. Within moments of her attention on his ear, he was rumbling again, and Kagome’s smile widened.

“Here you are! What are you doing?”

InuYasha sat bolt upright. Kagome gasped and barely caught the diary that flew at her. She jammed it into her bag as Shippou scampered over to them. “Shippou! What are you doing?” she asked, trying hard not to flush. She glanced at a very red-faced InuYasha. He was taking his time fiddling with Tetsusaiga.

“I volunteered to gather firewood . . . why was InuYasha reading your diary? You never let _me_ look at it,” the kitsune pouted. His head turned to stare at the hanyou. “Can I scratch your ears, too?”

“No!” InuYasha snarled and lunged for the kit. Kagome tried to stop him but InuYasha grabbed Shippou before she could do anything about it, and with Shippou in his arms, she couldn’t say ‘it’, either. “Listen, runt. If you say a thing to Sango or that hentai monk, I’ll skin you, gut you, cook you, and eat you. Got that?”

Shippou whined.

“InuYasha!”

“I won’t!” Shippou promised in a squeak.

“Inu _Yasha!_ ”

Apparently satisfied that Shippou would keep his word, InuYasha let go of the youngster. Shippou wasted no time escaping. He raced toward the woods then stopped and slowly turned around to face them again. “I _might_ slip,” he remarked a little too casually.

“Shippou—”

“InuYasha . . .”

“Damn it!”

“I _might_ be more inclined to remember . . . _if_ . . .”

InuYasha cracked his knuckles menacingly but didn’t move to intercept the child. “If what, runt?”

Shippou grinned. “If you’re _re-e-e-e-eally_ nice to me.”

Kagome could feel the tension in the hanyou. It did amuse her, though, that he was able to keep his temper in check. “Nice, how?” InuYasha growled.

“No more thumping, no matter what,” Shippou said, “and, umm . . . I want half of your ramen.”

The growl escalated into a very low snarl. Kagome quickly hid her smile behind her hand before InuYasha saw it and vented his frustration on her. “That sounds fair,” she couldn’t help but say.

“Fine,” InuYasha ground out. “Fucking kit . . .”

He stomped away. Shippou watched him go before running and barreling into Kagome’s arms. The two burst into laughter, and Kagome rubbed his hair. “It’s about time you got him,” she whispered.

Shippou positively beamed. “Now off to gather the firewood,” he quipped as he hopped down and ran off.

Kagome shook her head but remained smiling. For as often as InuYasha had thumped the poor kit over the years, she couldn’t rightfully blame the child for wanting a little bit of retribution . . . and it wouldn’t hurt InuYasha to learn some self-control with that, anyway. As for the ramen . . . ? That was a whole different ball game . . .

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I had to think about the whole Kikyou/InuYasha/Kagome journal entry here. Because this chapter isn’t in his POV, we don’t see exactly what she did write. I hope you understand what he got out of it though, because I was more interested in some of her reaction in this chapter, in particular . . . I have a feeling his reaction might be a little more intense when he finds out that Kikyou really did try to kill Kagome later on_. . .


	19. Keeping Secrets

“InuYasha! Watch out!”

With a quick glance over his shoulder, he leaped out of the way just in time to avoid being swatted by the tigress youkai’s razor-sharp claws. “Useless monk!” he growled as he turned to lunge at the youkai. “ _Sankon-tetsusou!_ ”

The tiger caught InuYasha in mid-air by the throat. The piercing claws cut into InuYasha’s skin, and the youkai heaved him back. InuYasha slammed into a tree as a flash of pain shot from his back to his brain. InuYasha ignored the ache and forced himself to his feet again, absently wiping blood off his neck with his sleeve.

“Give us the Shikon no Tama, hanyou!”

InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga with a condescending, “Keh!” In a flash of yellow-white light, the rusty blade transformed into his father’s fang. “The jewel wasn’t made for pathetic youkai like you,” he snarled as he gripped the sword with both hands.

Miroku grunted as he threw an Ofuda at the tiger youkai. The tiger shrieked as the paper-charm struck his back. Tendrils of smoke punctuated by the smell of burning flesh rose from the spot. The tiger-youkai struggled to reach the ofuda, trying in vain to pull it off of himself.

“Now, Sango!” Miroku yelled.

“ _Hiraikotsu!_ ” Sango yelled, unleashing the giant boomerang. Whistling as it spun through the air, the weapon took the youkai down. Impaired by Miroku’s Ofuda, the beast was easy pickings for the youkai exterminator. The boomerang flew back to her, and she caught it above her head with a satisfied smile.

The female tiger youkai stared at the slain body of her mate and shrieked in rage. “You! You _killed_ him!” the tigress youkai howled as she lunged at Sango. Miroku blocked her, holding her off with his Shakuju. “ _I’ll kill you!_ ” she spat, struggling to reach past the barrier of the staff, swinging her claws frantically at the holy man.

“Sango! Get back!” Miroku ground out, gritting his teeth together in his effort to hold the tigress back.

Sango ran forward, drawing the small sword she always wore on her lip instead of heeding Miroku’s warning. She stopped suddenly as the sing-song hum grew louder and louder. “Kagome . . .” Sango breathed, in awe of the sheer volume of spiritual energy contained in that one miko’s arrow.

The high-pitched hum whipped past InuYasha’s head as the flash of glowing pink barely missed his cheek. His hair whipped forward in the fabricated wind that trailed the arrow. He didn’t blink, and he didn’t flinch as the arrow ripped through the air straight toward the youkai.

“Good shot, Kagome!” Shippou encouraged as her sacred arrow tore through the tigress’ arm. The arm disintegrated in the purifying power of Kagome’s miko energy.

The youkai fell to the ground with an agonized howl as InuYasha slammed Tetsusaiga into the earth. “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ”

The flames tore up the ground in its path and hit the injured tigress. Her shriek grew louder, echoing off the trees surrounding them as the youkai was enveloped in the white-hot flames. Her cry died away as her body was consumed and left in ashes to blow away in the chill wind.

InuYasha slowly sheathed Tetsusaiga as he turned to stare at Kagome. “Keh!” he snorted. “Waited long enough, didn’t you?”

Kagome made a face as her bow dropped to her side. “I hit her, didn’t I?” she shot back with a grin.

“Pathetic humans,” InuYasha grouched. “I could have taken them on my own.”

“Sure you could have,” Miroku agreed, catching his breath as he rotated his right arm, holding onto his shoulder. “Aren’t you glad you don’t have to?”

InuYasha turned back to face the monk. “Yeah, fine.”

Kagome ran down the hill and touched InuYasha’s shoulder gently. “How’s your back?”

“Keh. I’ll live, wench.”

She gasped and dug into her pocket to retrieve her kerchief. “Hold still. Your neck’s bleeding.”

InuYasha lifted his chin, allowing Kagome to dab gently at the flesh wounds. They missed the amused look passed between the monk and the exterminator. Shippou hopped onto Miroku’s shoulder, and all three stared at the couple with varying degrees of interest.

Kagome scowled. “The one cut is pretty deep,” she remarked. “Let me get a bandage for that.”

“I don’t need it,” he scoffed.

“You’re still bleeding, and—”

“Keh!”

She rolled her eyes. “At least let me clean it then.”

“Fine.”

Miroku and Sango’s mouths dropped open as InuYasha sank down on the ground and waited for Kagome to retrieve her first aid kit.

“I’ve seen him refuse to let her look at much more serious wounds than that,” Sango muttered.

“Yes. Odd, indeed,” Miroku agreed.

“I can _hear_ you,” InuYasha hollered.

“Why don’t we camp here for the night,” Miroku suggested. “We ‘pathetic humans’ could use a breather after that.”

“Keh.”

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Miroku sank down next to the stream beside Sango. She leaned forward to fill the water bottles. He refrained from groping, barely. Sango had been preoccupied since they’d left the campsite. “Something bothering you?”

Sango sat back on her heels and stared at the monk. “What do you suppose is going on?”

Miroku didn’t need clarification. He’d been wondering that, himself. “It’s obvious to me. It looks like InuYasha might have finally found the courage to tell Kagome how he feels.”

Sango shook her head. “We’re talking about InuYasha. He’s as stubborn as they come. He wouldn’t have just told her.” The longer Sango thought it over, the more positive she looked. “But something had to have happened. He’s much more relaxed.”

“Ah, my Sango. As wise as you are beautiful . . . and I hope our children inherit this from you.” He sighed. “I want you to teach me.”

“Teach you? Teach you what?”

Miroku took a moment to gather his thoughts. Sango looked puzzled but she remained silent, waited for him to speak. “I would like you to train me as a youkai slayer, as well.”

“Houshi-sama—”

He put a finger to her lips to quiet her protests. “I want to be with you, Sango, no other, but I cannot dishonor you. I want to marry you. If we do this, I . . . I cannot remain a monk. For this reason, I want to learn your skill.”

Her cheeks pinked up as she shifted her gaze shyly away. “Houshi-sama . . .”

“Will you?”

She grinned. “Marry you? Or teach you?”

He chuckled. “Both, of course.”

“ . . . Yes. Both.”

Miroku scooted closer to Sango and gently lifted her chin to kiss her. “Do you suppose we ought to go back to the camp now?”

Sango smiled as she stared over the flowing water. Leaves fell off the trees and drifted down to float off into the distance on the current. “Let’s leave those two alone awhile longer.”

“Your wish is my command. Can we keep your training of me a secret for now?”

“Why?”

Miroku sighed. “You know InuYasha. He’ll make light of my being a ‘pathetic human’.”

Sango nodded. “All right.”

“So,” a new voice piped up behind them. “What do I get if I keep quiet?”

Sango and Miroku turned slowly to stare at the kitsune. Shippou looked like the proverbial cat that ate the canary . . .

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

‘ _InuYasha and I set out alone today to find someone we heard grew a special herb that would help Kirara. She was poisoned in Naraku’s shouki in the last battle with him. At the village, we met another hanyou. His name is Jinenji. The men in his village were accusing him of attacking them. It seemed that someone or something was responsible but instead of looking for the real culprit they chose to pin the blame on Jinenji, instead. It turned out that it wasn’t Jinenji at all. It was a youkai. But the entire episode made me wonder about InuYasha. He doesn’t like to talk about his past, and I can understand that. I know he didn’t have a good childhood. Somehow, though, seeing how the villagers treat Jinenji makes it that much clearer. I can’t even imagine how it felt, to be so much of an outcast, all because he was born different . . ._ ’

“InuYasha . . .”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think Sango and Miroku suspect anything?”

“Like what?” She traced little circles around his ear with her index finger. A distinct shiver ran down his spine. ‘ _Concentrate, baka! What the hell is she saying?_ ’

“. . . I just think they know something.”

“The only way they’d know anything is if Shippou told them, and if he did, I’ll cook him for dinner,” InuYasha remarked.

The look she sent him was a warning. He blinked rapidly. She shook her head.

Her finger lightly brushed against the downy hairs inside his ear. He yelped and jerked back, losing his balance at the sudden shift. It might not have been so bad, except in his panic to get away from her ticking fingers, he’d also forgotten where they were . . . ‘ _Oh, hell_ ,’ he thought wildly as he started to slip off the branch. Kagome tried to grab onto his arm. “No, don’t!” he hollered a second too late as they both tumbled out of the tree. He landed flat on his back and moaned. That quickly turned into a whoosh of breath as Kagome landed on him.

“Oww,” Kagome whimpered as she slid off him and struggled to sit up.

“What do you mean, oww?” he growled after he’d gotten his air back. “Damn, wench! What the hell do you think I am? A pillow?”

She suddenly giggled. “Sometimes.”

“Yeah, you’re lucky I don’t break as easily as you pathetic humans.”

Her laughter soothed his irritation. He sat up quickly. Kagome stopped giggling as quickly as she had started, and he looked up to see why. Staring at him with a slight smile, a mysterious expression in her gaze, she reached up and pulled leaves out of his hair. Slowly, hesitantly, he touched her cheek, running his fingers over the rise of her cheekbone, the hollow beneath. She closed her eyes, leaned into his touch.

Her hands fell to his arm, clutching the sleeve of the haori tightly in her small fists. Staring at her hands, he gasped and jerked his hand away from her face. He caught her hands and held them, finding it somehow easier to stare at her hands in his than to look her in the eye. His pulse thundered in his ears, and he shook his head, trying to clear his mind before he did something potentially stupid, like drag her into his arms and— ‘ _Don’t finish that thought, baka!_ ’

“Run, Kagome,” he rasped out, letting go of her hand and pulling away.

“InuYasha?”

He didn’t dare look at her. “We have to leave early tomorrow,” he clarified. “You’d better get some sleep.”

He heard her stand up, heard her soft sigh. “Goodnight,” she whispered. He heard the crunching leaves as she walked away.

Letting his head fall back, InuYasha stared up at the stars. He wanted to run after her. He couldn’t. It had been all he could do to let her go. He winced as he remembered her diary entry. Even if Kagome didn’t reject him, he, better than anyone, knew what the rest of the world thought. He was an abomination, unnatural. Not human, not youkai, there wasn’t a place in the world that would accept him. The life he knew of incessant fighting and constant movement . . . it wasn’t something he could ask, not of her.

‘ _No one chooses a hanyou_.’

Balling his hands into tight fists, he sighed and leaped back into the tree.

‘ _Kagome . . .’_

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Kaze no Kizu:_ ** _Wind Scar_
> 
> **_Sankon-tetsusou_ ** _: Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer_
> 
> **_Hiraikotsu_ ** _: Sango’s weapon_
> 
> **_Shakuju_ ** _: Miroku’s staff_
> 
> **_Shouki:_ ** _miasma-energy_


	20. Revenge

Kagome heaved a sigh as she tried to study the calculus book in her lap. ‘ _Come on, Kagome. Concentrate! Stop thinking about dog-boy and get your mind on your math!_ ’

“Ohh,” Kagome groaned. InuYasha. Something was wrong with him. He’d pulled away from her so quickly that she had spent the majority of last night staring at the sky. She hadn’t been able to sleep at all. It had only gotten worse when they started for Katosan’s castle.

He carried her on his back, same as always. It felt like there was a distance between them; a distance she hadn’t felt with him in years, since the beginning of their quest to find the Shikon no Kakera. By the time they had reached Katosan’s castle, Kagome had been blinking back tears and hadn’t been able to leave her room for dinner, either. She claimed that she needed to study. What she wanted was to be alone, to try to figure out what had happened to make InuYasha retreat.

‘ _Run, Kagome_.’

Why had he said that? Run from what?

She sighed again and rubbed her temple as she again tried to study. “InuYasha no baka,” she muttered as she glared at the book.

‘ _Admit it, Kagome. You miss BakaYasha. You know you do_.’

“Okay, I might,” she mumbled, her gaze lifting to the door. ‘ _Maybe he’ll come check on me before he goes to bed_ ,’ she thought then rolled her eyes. ‘ _Yeah . . . as if_.’ She lifted the book and forced her eyes back onto the page she was studying.

Kagome screamed and threw her arms over her head as the door crashed open. The calculus book flew through the air as InuYasha leapt into the room, Tetsusaiga drawn, ready to strike. Reacting to the object sailing at him, he swung his sword, cleaving the textbook neatly down the center. Kagome’s arms dropped as she stared in disbelief. Pages of the book floated down harmlessly, littering the floor and covering the futon where she sat.

‘ _Did he . . . ? He just . . . InuYasha!_ ’

She stood up slowly, preparing to give the hanyou an osuwari he’d remember for the rest of his life but his expression stopped her. Eyes darting around to survey every inch of the room, he looked as though he expected a hoard of youkai to fly out at him. Feet spread, knees slightly bent, hands wrapped around Tetsusaiga’s hilt, InuYasha was breathing heavily with a fierce glower on his face.

‘ _Wow_ ,’ she thought as she stared at the hanyou, irritation forgotten as a million butterflies were set loose in her stomach. Sure, she’d seen him a million times. Something about the way he stood there, unafraid, willing to fight whatever he had to in order to protect her stopped Kagome’s breath from actually reaching her lungs. ‘ _I mean . . ._ wow . . .’

“Where is it?” he asked, his voice low, cautious.

“Where is what, InuYasha?” she asked cautiously, her hand pressed against her stomach a she tried to calm the brigade of butterflies. “All you destroyed was my defenseless calculus book . . .”

He blinked, as though he just realized what he’d done. His scowl returned as the hint of a flush crept up his cheeks. “Keh! I thought I heard something in here.” He stared at the mess of papers littering the floor and his ears flattened. “You’re going to say ‘it’, aren’t you?”

His question didn’t register as she continued to stare at him. “Hmm?”

He glanced up at her then stared. “Stop that, wench!” he growled as his flush darkened and his gaze skittered away.

“Stop what?”

He swallowed hard but didn’t look at her again. “Stop _looking_ at me like that.”

She could feel herself flush as his complaint registered in her addled brain. ‘ _Get a hold of yourself, Kagome! What are you doing?_ ’

She forced her eyes away and sank down to gather up the remnants of the book. He knelt to help her and reached for a page just as she did. His hand closed over hers. “Sorry,” he muttered as he quickly jerked his hand back. He got up and headed for the door. “You’re safe. I’ll go.”

“Wait!” she called, shooting to her feet and darting after him. She stepped on one of the loose pages and slipped.

He caught her and set her back on her feet again but didn’t let go of her right away. The corners of his lips twitched in amusement, and his eyes sparkled. Suddenly he was the InuYasha she knew again, as though the strained silence from earlier hadn’t happened at all. “Clumsy wench.”

“If you hadn’t decided to use my calculus book for sword practice, I wouldn’t have slipped,” she reminded him.

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue her point. “I guess I could help you pick it up.”

“I should get unlimited ear-minutes for that. Mama’s going to be a little mad when I tell her what happened,” Kagome grouched though she was smiling. “She’s the one who’ll have to replace the book, after all.”

“Keh.”

He helped her gather up the pages. She stuffed them into her backpack. When she turned around again, InuYasha was holding his hand out, curling his fingers impatiently.

She gaped at him. “You _destroy_ my calculus book, and you think you’re going to get your claws on my diary tonight? Think again, Dog-boy!”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You can’t back out of our deal!” he growled incredulously.

“Give me _one_ good reason I should let you read my diary tonight,” she countered.

He blinked at her. Twice.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“Higher . . . to the right . . . too _far_ right . . . no . . . yes . . . _there!_ ” InuYasha whined as Kagome rolled her eyes and scratched his back. He couldn’t help it. There were times when he just wanted his back scratched, and there were places that he just couldn’t reach, no matter how hard he tried. This was one of those times, and she had found one of those places.

“Scratching your back wasn’t ever part of the deal,” Kagome remarked. She sounded more amused than irritated. He arched his back up against her hand.

‘ _She won’t be nearly as amused by you if she finds out that you made up that stupid reason to burst into her room._ ’ He made a face. ‘ _Or if she finds out that you’re not sorry in the least that you obliterated that book of hers, either_.’ He growled at the thought of his nemesis then hid a small grin at what had become of it. ‘ _Who cares? I won_.’

“All right,” he finally allowed. “I can’t read when you’re doing that.”

She sighed to let him know what she thought of his ‘orders’ but her fingers moved to intercept his ears, and he leaned toward her as he opened her diary.

‘ _I don’t know why I followed Kikyou into the mountain. I guess I did it because I knew that InuYasha, wherever he was, wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself for Kikyou, if he had to, and because after seeing her try to drag him to hell with her, I was scared she’d try it again. I still think about that. What if I hadn’t been there? As much as it hurt to see them together like that, in her barrier, if I hadn’t been there, she might have succeeded in dragging him to hell . . ._ ’

InuYasha winced. If reading her thoughts on paper was painful for him, how much worse had it been for her at the time?

‘ _When I reached the center of the mountain, InuYasha was trying to protect Kikyou. It wasn’t as though I didn’t realize that he would do that. Wasn’t that one of the reasons I’d followed Kikyou? No, it was hearing him proclaim that he wanted to protect her, above everything, that had hurt. If he died protecting her, where would that leave me? That sounds so selfish. Kikyou said that I was a fool for following her because I risked InuYasha losing me. I wonder, though, would it matter to him? If I did die, would Kikyou get the rest of her soul back? The part that is still in me? Then they could be together, as they should have been._ ’

She really had no idea, did she? There hadn’t been another, not since the moment he met her. He shifted his gaze to look at her. Idly toying with his ears, she looked as though there wasn’t anything she’d rather be doing. He tried to tell her before, how much she meant to him. He’d tried many, many times. Then, as now, he couldn’t get the words to come out. He sighed and dropped his gaze back to the book again.

‘ _Truth is that I started searching for the shards with InuYasha because I broke the jewel. Somehow, though, it all changed. I really did become the jewel detector because I wanted to be near InuYasha. It sounds stupid to say this but I just keep hoping that he’ll figure out that he likes to laugh better than he likes to feel guilty when he hasn’t done anything to feel guilty about . . ._ ’

‘ _Nothing to feel guilty about?_ ’ He frowned. Kagome had known what he hadn’t been able to figure out for so long. He’d known that he hadn’t actually killed Kikyou. That really hadn’t helped much, though. If it hadn’t been for him, Naraku wouldn’t have been able to use his face to trick Kikyou. He didn’t realize how much thought Kagome had given it before. She just wanted him to laugh? He sighed. It seemed like such a foreign idea to him.

Yet she did that, didn’t she? She made him laugh, made him feel as though everything might be all right in the world. She made him hope.

‘ _Keh! You_ are _going soft, baka!_ ’ He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the feel of her touch. ‘ _Damn, she really_ is _getting a little too good at this . . ._ ’

“InuYasha?”

“Mmm?”

“Are you falling asleep?”

“Keh.” He forced his eyes open. “I don’t sleep.”

“Uh-huh . . .”

He rolled onto his side, propping his head on his hand and staring at Kagome. She looked like she was thinking of something that had nothing at all to do with him. He frowned and wondered briefly if there was another calculus book lurking in that gargantuan bag of hers. “I _know_ that look, wench. It means you’re thinking about something that normally involves you being nosey and sticking that nose where it doesn’t belong. Spill it.”

“I’m not nosey,” she argued. “I’m concerned, that’s all.”

“You say concerned, I say nosey. The end result is always the same. I have to come in and rescue you because you’re a pathetic human girl.”

She shot him a withering look for his unkind description but shook her head and went on. “Did you notice Sango, Miroku, and Shippou today?”

InuYasha snorted. “Nope. Why? That pervert start grabbing Shippou’s ass?”

“Of course not! Be serious, please.”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “All right, fine. What did I miss?”

Satisfied that he was going to listen and not poke fun at her, Kagome grinned and gently flicked the tip of his ear. Her grin widened when his ear twitched involuntarily. He flattened them against his head before she could tweak again. “It wasn’t really anything, I guess. It was just a little peculiar. Miroku was carrying Shippou everywhere. Like, Shippou would tell Miroku where he wanted to go, and Miroku would take him there.” She shrugged. “It just seemed . . . weird.”

“Maybe Shippou’s blackmailing Miroku,” InuYasha said, only half-teasing. At dinner last evening, Kagome made sure InuYasha had a nice hot cup of ramen. It irked him to no end, to see Shippou sitting there with a cup, as well. Then the little twerp had made a huge spectacle of eating his ramen, and that had nearly ended their deal since InuYasha had been hard-pressed not to thump the brat—hard.

Kagome rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing to blackmail Miroku with! He’s a _monk_.”

“A monk who enjoys asses a little too much.”

“Well, sure, but Sango knows that already. What I’m saying is, there’d be no reason for that. Anyway, maybe I was just reading too much into it.”

A heavy thump against the wall that separated Kagome’s room from Sango’s startled her. Kagome squeaked and whipped her head around before glancing at InuYasha. InuYasha sat up. “What the hell was that?” he grumbled as he shot to his feet.

The hanyou ran out of the room as he drew Tetsusaiga before he threw his shoulder against Sango’s door. The door was left in a tattered mess, and he stepped back, blinking in surprise, at the scene that greeted him.

Miroku was lying flat on the floor with Sango straddling his chest in her slayer’s clothing and her sword poised against the monk’s neck. Shippou sat near the window calmly spinning his small wooden top. InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed the couple as Sango quickly rose to her feet.

“Do you have to break _everything_ you touch?” Kagome muttered as she ran straight into InuYasha’s back. Steadying herself with a fistful of his haori as she peeped around his arm with a gasp, Kagome forgot her prior irritation about InuYasha’s unceremonious door-desecration.

Miroku stood up. “Is something wrong?” he asked, fighting off his embarrassment admirably.

“I don’t _even_ know where to start,” InuYasha remarked with a raised eyebrow as he glanced from one to the other and dropped Tetsusaiga back into its scabbard.

“What was that thump we heard?” Kagome questioned, stepping around InuYasha.

“Thump?” Sango echoed as her face reddened.

“Nice shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red,” InuYasha muttered to Kagome.

Kagome nodded. “I’ll say.”

“Oh, the thump!” Miroku cut in with a forced chuckle. “I sensed a youkai . . . I was posting an ofuda.”

InuYasha nodded slowly. “’Course you did, monk. Katosan is youkai, baka. Don’t be trying to exorcise him from his own home. Now why was Sango sitting on you?”

It was Miroku’s turn to flush. “Uh . . .”

“I was trying to stop him from posting the Ofuda!”

“Uh—huh.” InuYasha spared them all a last look before turning and stomping out of the room with a shake of his head. “You humans are hella strange,” he commented as he sank back down to retrieve Kagome’s diary.

Kagome closed her door and ambled over to him. “See what I mean? I told you, there’s something going on.”

“I don’t want to talk about _them_ ,” he complained.

Kagome relented. Kneeling beside him, she bent down enough to peer into his face. “Did you get to speak to Katosan yet?”

InuYasha stretched and shook his head. “Nope. He’s gone. His men said that there was some sort of trouble that he had to take care of.

“Did they say when he should be back?”

“Sometime tomorrow.”

She frowned, staring at her hands resting in her lap.

“Out with it,” he demanded.

Peeking up at him, Kagome’s frown deepened. “I feel like something’s wrong,” she finally admitted. “But I don’t know why.”

He yawned and stretched before lying down again and deliberately nudging her with his head. “Less talk.”

She rolled her eyes but complied.

He let her rub his ears, filling the otherwise quiet room with his low resonance. His head fell into her lap, his cheek resting on the soft fabric of the strange pants she wore to sleep in. Flannel, she called them. The material smelled like her.

The journal entry he’d read plagued him. Her words made him sad. ‘ _I really did become the jewel detector because I wanted to be near InuYasha.’_ Why would she have wanted that? He’d be the first to admit that he hadn’t been very nice to her, not back then. He grimaced. Even now, he wasn’t what he would consider nice.

‘ _She ought to have left me long ago, stupid girl. And she thinks I’m the stubborn one. Keh! She ought to be running for her life in fear of me_.’ He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent and the heady feel of contentment that came with it. ‘ _But I’m glad she hasn’t. I want her here, with me_.’

“Kagome?”

“Yes?”

“For what it’s worth . . . you were never just a jewel detector, not to me.”

“What was I?”

He smiled vaguely, lulled by her soothing touch. “You were . . . my friend.” Her hand stilled for a moment before resuming her attention on his ears. ‘ _My first friend . . . my_ only _friend_. _My_ best _friend._ _She’s more than a friend to me. Anywhere with Kagome is . . . my home._ ’

“You’re my friend, too,” she replied softly, gently rubbing the silvery trace scars on his ears. “InuYasha . . . can I ask you something?”

“Do I have a choice?” he teased.

She giggled then turned more serious. “Why did your ears scar? I mean, I’ve seen you take much worse damage. You’ve never scarred, not even when Sesshoumaru put his hand through your stomach. So why your ears?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I never realized they did scar, until you said something. I can’t really see them so well.”

She made a face. “I didn’t expect you could since they’re on top of your head. I still can’t believe that. It makes me so mad!”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Because it hurt you,” she answered simply, as though it should have been apparent to him. “And I love your ears . . .”

“Keh,” he snorted. He didn’t miss her blush. He could feel the change in her body temperature as her embarrassment spiked. He wrapped his arms around her and snuggled closer to her.   “I didn’t tell you that you could stop, wench,” he grumbled.

She relaxed. “You’re such a pain,” she remarked with a soft giggle.

“Hmm. You talk too much.”

She was quiet . . . for all of thirty seconds. “It’s okay, InuYasha. You’re safe. You can sleep.”

“Mmm,” he managed just before he gave himself over to the welcoming embrace of rest . . . and of Kagome.

 

 

 

 

 


	21. Destroyed

InuYasha stared over the landscape with a pensive look as Katosan gave him some time to digest the given information.

“It doesn’t make any fucking sense,” InuYasha said slowly. “Why?”

Katosan shook his head, his golden hair whipping behind him in the wind. Standing atop the small cliff behind the castle, the youkai narrowed his gaze as he stared at the young hanyou. “I only wish I knew, InuYasha-sama. Tell me, what will you do?”

“There’s nothing I can do. You said—”

“I know what I said. I’m asking if you will let this alone.”

InuYasha shrugged. “What does it matter? I didn’t care, in the first place.

“What do you know of your parents? Izayoi-sama was a princess, did you know? She was the only child of Musashi’s daimyo.”

No, he hadn’t realized that. He’d never stopped to think about it. He recalled the castle where he had lived with his mother. He remembered the private gardens where he played alone as a child, the courtyard where the adults gathered. The particularly poignant memory of the men taking away his ball when he had tried to play with them still nagged at him. He brushed the memory aside and instead focused on Katosan. “What does it matter?”

Katosan’s gaze dropped. “InuYasha-sama, why do you think it was that she died?”

“I don’t know. I was small. I don’t remember.”

“I do. I remember when your father chose her. I do not pretend that it was a comfortable time. The Inu no Taisho had chosen a human---a mortal---a princess. Many of our kind wanted to challenge him. They said he had brought shame to the youkai. The most powerful among us had chosen a human.” Katosan sighed, as if remembering something bitter, vile. Gaze clouding over with bitter emotion, the youkai shook his head slowly as a cynical smile twisted the corners of his lips. “You can imagine the outrage when he chose to sire you, as well. By then, Ryukotsusei had come to power. When your father set out that day, there were many who hoped he would not return.”

“What does this have to do with me?” InuYasha asked, unable to keep the belligerence out of his tone. Tired of hearing about how he and his mother had been the death of his father, InuYasha just wanted to hear the crux of it and be done with the insinuations.

Katosan lifted his face into the wind, closing his eyes and breathing deep before he spoke. “I do not tell you this to enrage you, InuYasha-sama. I tell you this because there are things you need to understand.”

InuYasha sighed and folded his arms together under the cover of his haori sleeves. “Keh. Fine.”

Satisfied that InuYasha would listen, Katosan nodded. “The Inu no Taisho died saving you and your mortal mother. Instead of being grateful for the sacrifice your father made, Izayoi-sama’s people were angry, bitter. Inasmuch as the youkai raised questions about the Inu no Taisho in dark places, in private circles, your mother was openly ridiculed by those who called her their own. _They_ killed her. Her last request was that I should take her journal to Sesshoumaru-sama. I did this.”

“You did? You were there? When Mother . . . ?”

Katosan offered one curt nod. “It was not a secret that your brother never cared for Izayoi-sama. He accepted the responsibility to protect the journal for you out of respect for the Inu no Taisho. His mistake was that he underestimated the worth of that journal. My mistake was leaving you behind.”

InuYasha’s frown darkened. “What do you mean?”

“I believed that the animosity they harbored toward your mother did not extend to you. Your grandfather swore he’d see to your needs, and I believed him. By the time I was able to return, to take you from them, you had already escaped. They gloated that one as young as you would not live through the winter.”

“Why would you even care?”

“Inu no Taisho asked me to do this. He said that if anything should befall your mother that I was to see you delivered safely to Sesshoumaru-sama. When I saw Sesshoumaru-sama later, he assured me that you were fine.”

“Depends on what you call ‘fine’,” InuYasha grumbled.

“Pardon me?”

“Never mind.”

“When your grandfather died, legitimate issue could not be found. The only one had escaped years before. Izayoi-sama had no siblings. Know you what that means?”

“No.”

Katosan smiled indulgently. “It means, InuYasha-sama . . . the whole of Musashi is, by rights, yours.”

“Keh!”

“It is worth considering, InuYasha-sama. You have the human right to take it because of your mother. Because of your father, you have the physical ability to see it done.”

“I don’t want Musashi,” he scoffed. “I would like to know, though, how you know they took the journal. What makes you so sure?”

Katosan pulled a roll of parchment out of his sleeve and handed it to InuYasha. After a long moment, he took it and read it with a scowl. ‘ _Find it and destroy it. Izayoi’s journal must never be found._ ’ It wasn’t signed. It didn’t have to be. Though dulled by the passage of years, the scent that faintly lingered on the paper was still one InuYasha would never forget as long as he lived.

‘ _Mama! I want Mama!’_

‘ _Your mother is dead because of you, half-breed!’_

“Mother’s _father_ ordered this?” InuYasha said, crumbling the paper in his hand. Something ugly welled up in his chest, something dark, something bitter. He tried to ignore it. Suddenly he turned and stalked away.

Katosan watched the hanyou’s retreating form with a slight scowl. Impetuous, passionate, and deadly. It was a combination of those traits that had best described the Inu no Taisho. That combination had also led to his death in the end.

He smelled the young miko before he heard her. The wind blew her scent right to him. Katosan slowly turned to face her. Wearing a strange sort of heavy wrap over her even stranger hakama, Katosan grudgingly admitted that the girl exuded spiritual power in her aura.

Stopping a respectful distance away from him, she forced a tepid smile and wrapped her arms closer around herself. She did not bear the scent of InuYasha’s mate though he could smell the hanyou all over her. The miko bowed slightly. “I was looking for InuYasha. Wasn’t he with you?”

Katosan stared in the direction the hanyou had taken. “He wished for some time alone.” Golden eyes shifting back, he regarded her in obvious interest. “Tell me, miko. What is your relationship with InuYasha-sama?”

A guarded light entered her expression, and her dropped her eyes to her hands. Fiddling with her fingernails, she shifted nervously under his perusal. “We’re . . . friends,” she finally said, measuring her tone carefully.

“Friends?” he echoed. “Interesting answer.”

Kagome lifted her chin defiantly and stared the youkai in the eye, meeting his gaze steadily, without fear, and without hesitation. “What do you want from him?”

Katosan looked surprised for a moment. Then he smiled. “Not a thing.” Suddenly he chuckled, his eyes cold as he assessed her. “I’m harmless, Miko, I promise you.”

She didn’t comment on that. “Would you tell me which direction InuYasha went?”

He inclined his head to her and pointed in the direction that InuYasha had gone. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve some things that demand my attention.”

Kagome watched the youkai walk away with a thoughtful frown. It wasn’t the youkai’s demeanor that bothered her. There was a dangerous feeling in the aura that surrounded him. The look in his eyes unsettled her. She rubbed her arms through the sleeves of her coat. ‘ _There really is something about him . . . something I don’t trust, at all_.’

“Kagome!”

She shook herself and smiled as Sango, with Kirara in her arms, ran toward her. Kagome’s brow furrowed as she noticed that her friend was sporting her youkai exterminator’s outfit once again. She’d been wearing that a lot more often lately . . .

“Sango, why are you wearing that?” she asked, careful to keep her tone light.

Sango shrugged. Kagome didn’t miss the slight pink that tinged her friend’s cheeks. “I was training.”

“Oh? Was Miroku with you?”

“Miroku?”

“Yes, Miroku. The monk? The one who’s always trying to grope your rear?”

“Oh, no, haven’t seen him.”

Kagome eyed Sango suspiciously. ‘ _Yep, definitely something weird going on here_.’ She sighed. “Is there anything you want to talk about? You seem a little nervous.”

Sango laughed but it didn’t sound at all like her normal self. “You worry too much, Kagome . . . so tell me . . . is there something going on between you and InuYasha?”

It was Kagome’s turn to blush. “No,” she said slowly. “Should there be?”

“Oh, no, just wondering. He’s been pretty . . . nice . . . to Shippou lately.”

“Has he? I hadn’t noticed,” Kagome remarked with a forced giggle. ‘ _Eep!_ ’ They walked along in silence for a few moments. Kagome reached over to pet Kirara. “Miroku’s been really nice to Shippou, too, lately. Well, I guess he’s always been nicer to Shippou than InuYasha has, but he’s been . . . _extra_ nice.”

A vague idea occurred to Kagome. The same one must have dawned on Sango, too, because the two girls slowly turned to stare at each other. Suddenly they both burst into fits of giggling. The giggles escalated into full-scale laughter that left them clutching the other’s arms until their humor died down.

“I’ll tell you all about it as soon as Miroku says I can,” Sango promised with a bright grin.

“Me, too,” Kagome assured Sango. “Me, too . . . but what about Shippou?”

Sango thought it over then shrugged. “Being nice to Shippou isn’t a horrible thing, is it?”

Kagome grinned. “No . . . no, I don’t think it is.”

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

****

****

Miroku winced and pressed his hand against the small of his back as he slowly made his way back to the castle. ‘ _Beautiful and deadly_ ,’ he thought with a wry grin. ‘ _That’s my Sango . . ._ ’

The extermination lessons were killing him, plain and simple. Unwilling to tell Sango just how badly his body hurt from the sessions, Miroku was suffering plenty. He hadn’t fully appreciated exactly how much work it was for Sango to maintain that flawless body of hers. He squeezed his eyes closed as his back spasmed. He appreciated it all on a whole new level now.

“Oi, lecher! What the hell happened to you?”

Miroku stifled the urge to groan as InuYasha dropped out of the tree he’d been passing under. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, InuYasha.”

“Keh! You look like you just had your ass kicked, that’s what,” InuYasha remarked with a suspicious stare.

“Of course not,” Miroku assured the hanyou, trying for a little more ebullience than he actually felt.

“Finally grope Sango one too many times?” InuYasha fell in step beside Miroku. “I warned you before, monk. If she can exterminate youkai, she could easily wipe the floor with the likes of you.”

Shippou ran up beside them and hopped onto Miroku’s shoulder. “Miroku! I was looking for you!”

“Oh?” Miroku asked. “Why is that?”

Shippou bounced around happily. “I wanted to practice my foxfire! Come on!”

Briefly Miroku had to wonder just how much teasing he’d have to endure from InuYasha about Sango training him because at the moment, the last thing he wanted to do was to run around the meadow as Shippou blasted foxfire at him.

He heaved a heavy sigh and veered off toward the field.

InuYasha frowned as the monk and kitsune headed down the hill. Kagome was right about one thing: something really strange was going on . . .

“InuYasha!”

He stared at the two as Kagome ran toward him. “I’ve been looking for you!” she exclaimed breathlessly as she stopped beside him. She glanced over to see what he was watching. Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously. “What’s Miroku doing?”

“Dunno,” InuYasha admitted without taking his eyes off the monk. Miroku ran in a wide circle around Shippou as the kitsune blasted off balls of foxfire. “You’re right, that is weird.”

Kagome shrugged. “Maybe he’s just trying to help Shippou train. That’s really nice of him, if you ask me.”

InuYasha watched for another minute then shook his head. “Nope. That _is_ weird, nothing _nice_ about it.”

She grabbed his hand and dragged him in the opposite direction. “Come on,” she coaxed.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked dubiously.

Kagome smiled. “I just thought it’d be nice to go for a walk.”

“We’ve been _walking_ for days,” he reminded her.

She sighed and stopped, whirling around to stare at him. Dropping his hand, she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her head to the side as she critically regarded him. “What’s wrong, and don’t tell me nothing.”

Hands on hips, InuYasha glared off to the side. “It’s been destroyed.”

“What has?”

“The journal,” he growled. “Mother’s journal.”

“How do you know?”

The concern in Kagome’s eyes only served to irritate him more. He hated making her worry, and as her worry grew, so did his upset. “Katosan found a letter. Mother’s father wrote it. It reeked of him. He wanted it destroyed. It’s gone.”

“Are you sure?” she asked quietly.

He scowled at her. “Of course I’m sure!” he bellowed, frustration winning out over common sense. “Oh, hell! I don’t care!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Keh! Weren’t you listening? I said—”

She reached out and turned his face toward hers with her gentle fingers. Eyes glowing with unshed tears, she shook her head slowly as she stared into his eyes. “I heard you. I also _know_ you.”

He growled and jerked away from her. “Not everyone is like you, Kagome. Not everyone cares about memories or the past . . . It doesn’t matter! Knowing what happened back then isn’t going to change a fucking thing now, so why pretend it will? You come from a time and a place where everything is nice and kind and happy, but I don’t. Stop trying to change me into you.”

She recoiled with a visible flinch. Stubbornly blinking back tears, she glared at him through the ones she couldn’t hide. “Is that what you really think?” she asked, her voice tainted with an angry tremor. “You think I’ve spent all this time with you trying to _change_ you?”

“Keh!”

“Keh!” she spat back as she stomped away. She stopped after a few steps and turned back to face him again. “I’ve never asked you to be anything you aren’t! I’ve never implied that you’re worthless or stupid! I’ve never asked you to change! I’ve never wanted you to be anything or anyone you’re not! I’m not Kik---”

He winced as she bit off her last word. White hot rage shot through him, and before he said or did anything that he would regret, he drew a deep breath and balled up his fists so tightly that his claws dug into his palms. The pain was enough to ease the edge of his anger. “Go ahead and finish,” he said quietly.

Arms wrapped protectively over her stomach, Kagome shook her head slowly. She couldn’t meet his gaze. “I didn’t mean that,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re right,” he replied tightly. “You’re not Kikyou.”

He turned and stalked away, leaving Kagome standing alone with the wind whipping her hair into her face to hide her tears.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_A note about InuYasha’s mother, Izayoi_** _. While it isn’t stated anywhere that she was a princess or anything, her mannerisms and dress indicate a very high rank in nobility. (Basically, the more layers of clothing, the higher ‘rank’ one is.) I have based the crux of this on these assumptions_.


	22. Defenseless

The stillness echoed through his head, through his brain, settling as a dull ache that pressed against his eyelids like an oppressive shroud. Forehead resting against the door, knuckles poised to knock . . . and yet he’d stood there for what felt like hours, waiting until all was silent, until this stillness threatened to break him.

The door made no noise as it opened. Sliding into the room, a sudden wash of light came over him, and the light was her. He needed it, this thing that had come from her. This part of her that might hold the ability to grant his wish. Gliding over the floor without even a whisper, locating the precious thing in the dark, he had to trust his fingers as he watched her, making sure that she stayed asleep.

He found it at last. Toward the bottom of the bag, buried under other things, he held it to his chest, closed his eyes as a thread of hope sparkled in his mind. It could help him. It _had_ to.

After one last look at the sleeping girl, he slipped out of the room as quietly as he had come and strode across the hallway into the empty chamber. He sank onto his futon, stared at the glowing light of the fire in the small central pit.

With a sigh, he let his gaze fall to the pilfered bounty that he still held cradled against his heart.

Kagome’s diary.

He stared at the cover as a stabbing pang twisted his stomach. Flattening his ears against his head, InuYasha couldn’t help the whine that escaped as he suddenly, violently missed Kagome’s touch. Body rebelling against the idea of reading the book without her, he let it fall from his hand.

Guilt that he had even considered reading her diary without her gnawed at him. ‘ _She trusted you, baka! This is how you repay that trust? By sneaking into her room and stealing the damned diary?_ ’

He shook his head. That wasn’t why he took it. He wanted to read her feelings. Afraid that he’d done irreparable damage, his last hope had been this book---the book that he didn’t even dare open, not without Kagome.

With a heavy sigh, he grabbed the book and got up to return the diary. He scowled and tried to brush the guilty feelings aside as he opened his door.

“Good reading?”

“ _Aahhh!_ ” he hollered as he stumbled back.

Kagome stepped into his room with her arms over her chest and a menacing glower that pinned him to the floor.

“Do you have to scare me like that, wench?”

“I don’t know,” she replied in a deadly-quiet voice. “Did you have to steal my diary?”

‘ _Say it, stupid! It’s just two words!_ ’

His ears flattened again, and he sighed. ‘ _Easier said than done, damn it_.’ He dared a glance at her. She didn’t look amused. He winced. “I didn’t _steal_ it,” he grumbled. “I _borrowed_ it.”

“You _borrow_ a pen or a piece of paper. You _borrow_ a jacket or a blanket. You _borrow_ money or a cup of sugar. Taking someone’s _diary_ is _stealing_ , baka!”

“Fucking fine, I _stole_ it! Is that better?”

Her gaze narrowed even more. “I don’t think it is,” Kagome replied coldly as she snatched up her diary and turned on her heel to stomp out of the room.

InuYasha shot off the floor and caught her wrist. “I’m sorry,” he growled, flinching at the hint of desperation that he couldn’t hide. He sighed, shoulders slumping as he let go and returned to his futon. “I wasn’t even mad at you . . . I was just . . .” He sighed again. “I’m sorry.”

She stopped and slowly turned her head to gaze at him. “You mean that, don’t you?”

“Keh.”

Her feet padded softly across the floor, and she knelt down next to him on his futon. “I’m sorry, too. Just because I was angry didn’t give me the right to say those things to you. I knew you were upset, and---”

“Don’t apologize to me, okay?”

She was about to answer when his stomach rumbled---loudly. Kagome grinned and got up before reaching down to catch InuYasha’s hand and pulling him to his feet, too. “Come on. I put some water on earlier for a cup of hot chocolate.”

He followed her with a half-smile. ‘ _Hot chocolate . . . not bad . . . wonder if she’s got any ramen in that bag she lives out of . . ._ ”

She made quick work of mixing two packets of the chocolate mix with hot water. He set his mug aside and dragged her bag into the light. Kagome didn’t even have to ask what he was looking for as he rummaged around. ‘ _Maybe she knows me a little too well_ ,’ he thought with a grin. Pulling out a cup of the instant wonder, he held it out to her, refraining from utilizing the notorious blink to get his way. She rolled her eyes but smiled as she opened the cup and poured hot water over the dried noodles.

InuYasha dug into the bag once again, this time for chopsticks. “Can you keep anything else in here, wench?” he grumbled as he gave up and started pulling things out and setting them aside.

“I’m a girl. Girls always carry that much stuff.”

“Keh! I’ve seen girls, both here and in your time, and I’ve never seen any of them hauling around a monstrosity like this.”

He pulled out the chopsticks along with smaller pink bag, and he frowned at it, bringing it to his nose and cautiously sniffing. “What’s this?” he asked suspiciously. He hadn’t seen this bag before. He knew he hadn’t.

Kagome glanced over and pulled the chopsticks out of his slack hand to stir his ramen. “Oh, that? That just holds my hair things.”

He shot her a dubious look. “Hair things?” Slowly, he unzipped the bag and pulled the edges apart to peer inside. “Oh, _that_ stuff,” he remarked, losing interest when Kagome offered him the cup of ramen.

“You’d better save half of that for Shippou,” she commented as she drank her hot chocolate.

“Keh!” InuYasha scoffed. “Are you going to tell him?”

She giggled.

He made quick work of the ramen then blinked as he surveyed the mess he’d made. ‘ _I can’t believe all this stuff fits in that bag_ ,’ he mused as he started shoving stuff back into the backpack.

Picking up the pink bag, he glanced over at Kagome. She was sitting, knees raised, one arm draped over her knees, the other elbow leaning against her legs as her hand rubbed the back of her neck. She looked so tired. He scowled. She caught his expression and her features immediately clouded over. “InuYasha?”

“You should get some rest,” he replied gruffly.

“I’m fine.”

“Keh.”

She reached over and plucked the bag out of his hand. Digging around for her brush, she pulled her hair over her shoulder and sighed as she started to drag it through her hair.

InuYasha watched for a minute. She flinched when she caught a tangle in her hair. He scooted behind her and pulled the brush out of her hand. “What are you doing?” she asked.

He gathered her hair and pulled it back before gently drawing the brush through the length of it.

She sighed and leaned her cheek on her raised knees. Eyes closed with a slight smile, InuYasha felt his breath catch before it reached his lungs. He kept brushing long after all the snarls were removed.

 _‘Is this how she feels when she plays with my ears?_ ’ he wondered. Her contentment was so real to him that he might have been able to touch it. Eyes closed, a slight smile toying with her lips, she looked like there wasn’t a place on earth she’d rather be. He shook his head as a little grin surfaced on his face. ‘ _If it’s even close . . . I hope so_.’

Finally he set the brush aside. Almost asleep, she mumbled, “Done?”

He leaned over her shoulder, close to her ear, to whisper, “Come on. You can’t sleep sitting up like that.”

“Comfortable.”

“Keh.”

When she didn’t move, he shook his head and gathered her up to lay her on the futon. She sighed as she rolled over onto her side. InuYasha stretched out with her, head propped up on his hand as he stared at her. “Will you sing . . . that song?” she asked sleepily. “Your mother’s?”

He did. As he sang to her, she smiled, willing her eyes open to stare at him. She reached up, stroked his cheek, ran her fingers along his cheekbone, his jaw. Her touch shot through him, an aching need building even as he fought to understand what it was she made him feel. A fierce emotion, both wild and beautiful, welled up inside. The will to protect her combined with the encompassing fear that she would somehow slip away from him.

‘ _Stay with me, Kagome . . . If you left . . . if I lost you . . ._ ’ When her hand fell away as her eyes drifted closed, he had to fight the desire to wake her up, to beg her to touch him again. But it was late, and she was tired, and in the morning, they’d be leaving again.

He finished the song to her soft, steady breathing. He leaned down to press his lips against her cheek before he laid down, his eyes closing and sleep drifting over him even as his contented rumbles broke the soft calm of the room. In her sleep, Kagome snuggled against him. In his sleep, he smiled.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

****

****

“Kagome! Have you seen InuYasha? Tetsusaiga’s in his chamber, but---” Miroku burst into Kagome’s room.

Kagome sat up quickly, rubbing her eyes as she yawned and tried to make sense of the monk’s words. “Miroku?”

“Pardon me! Carry on with . . . yeah . . . Okay, whenever you two are ready . . . Uh . . .”

“What the fuck? Tetsusaiga---”

Kagome gasped as InuYasha’s grumbling reminded her that she hadn’t been alone. “It isn’t what it looks like!” she declared.

Miroku’s grin was a little too smug. “I didn’t think anything of the sort, Kagome,” he assured her. “You are above reproach. InuYasha, however,” he added, nodding toward InuYasha, who was sitting on his haunches issuing a low growl, “has the manners of a, err, _dog_.”

“Fucking lecher! I’m nothing like you, damn it! _Get back here!_ ” InuYasha bellowed as he shot to his feet to intercept the retreating monk. He stomped out of Kagome’s room.

Moments later, she heard a door slam open followed by, “I didn’t see anything! I swear!”

“Of course you didn’t, pervert! Nothing happened!”

“Not even a kiss? InuYasha, I’m disappointed in you . . .”

“Lecher! Fucking stand _still!_ ”

“Let’s not do anything rash . . . how about a moment of quiet reflection?”

“Reflect on _this_ , baka!”

Kagome winced as a dull thump echoed back to her. Changing her clothes as quickly as she could, she smiled despite her acute embarrassment. Under different circumstances, it might have been nice, waking up next to InuYasha . . .

‘ _I can’t believe how good I slept last night_ ,’ she marveled as she repacked her bag.

She’d just finished putting everything in order when InuYasha stomped back into her room, Tetsusaiga fastened securely to his hip. “Come on, wench. We ain’t got all day.”

Kagome sighed. Obviously everything was back to normal, which meant that surly-InuYasha was back. ‘ _It was nice while it lasted_ ,’ she thought with a wry grin. “I’m ready,” she said as she headed for the door.

He took her bag and slung it over his shoulder. She caught the look in his eyes before he turned away. She hid her smile as she followed him out of the room. That one glimpse of emotion spoke to her, called to her soul. At least for that moment, he was happy.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“InuYasha?”

He didn’t answer as he sat high in the tree, arms folded together, staring off into the distance.

Kagome sighed. She’d really hoped that InuYasha had enough time to calm down.

Waiting until everyone else was sleeping, Kagome had forced herself to stay awake before carefully maneuvering Shippou to the side so she could get out. After grabbing her diary, Kagome wandered over to the tree where InuYasha had been keeping silent watch all night.

If it hadn’t been bad enough that Miroku had found them asleep like that, InuYasha had made such a racket this morning that everyone knew about it. Kagome had been embarrassed but, because of the stir, InuYasha hadn’t said more than two words to her since they left Katosan’s castle. She could understand his acute discomfort, sure, but Miroku had made it that much worse by teasing InuYasha most of the day.

Sango, at least, had taken pity on the hanyou during their noon lunch stop. After another colorful comment about how cozy they’d looked when unceremoniously burst into Kagome’s room, the youkai exterminator had announced that if Miroku didn’t knock it off that he would be on the receiving end of Hiraikotsu. Not willing to temp fate, the monk had left off, at least, whenever Sango was nearby.

“It’s not really fair, you know,” she called softly. “I didn’t do anything this time.”

When he still didn’t answer, Kagome gave up. Turning to go back to the warmth of her bedroll, she gasped in surprise as strong arms caught her and cradled her against a warm hanyou. He bounded back into the tree, letting Kagome rest against him as her blood thundered in her ears. “You should warn a girl before you do that,” she chided. Her voice sounded breathless, and he snorted.

“Keh! As if you didn’t know I would.”

“I didn’t,” she protested. “I was going to go back to bed.”

He sighed. “I’ve been plotting ways to off the monk,” he admitted. “Haven’t thought of any that wouldn’t look too obvious.”

“You might as well admit it, InuYasha. You’re all bark and no bite,” she said as she sat up and turned to reach for his ears.

He ducked away with a scowl. “And what do you think you’re doing, wench?”

“Oh, come on! I didn’t get to rub them at all yesterday!” she protested.

He rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh to let her know what he thought of her demands but got up anyway, letting her scoot back against the tree trunk. He stretched out on the branch with his head in her lap.

“Don’t you want this?” she asked, offering him the diary.

“Of course, wench! Give it.”

She pulled it out of his grasp and wrinkled her nose. “Ask nicely.”

“Keh.”

“Come on,” she cajoled.

“That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“You’re so bad.”

“I’m sure as hell not letting you sit here playing with my ears because I _like_ it or anything,” he grouched as he snatched the diary out of her hand.

“Really,” she remarked dryly.

“Quiet, wench. I can’t read when you’re blabbing.”

She grumbled under her breath but stopped talking.

He flipped to the marked page and rolled enough to catch the firelight on the page.

‘ _In our search to find Kikyou, we stumbled into a trap Naraku set. The miasma cast a spell that he called ‘Illusory death’, and I lost track of everyone in the shouki. It was there, in that stifling place that we all saw our worst dreams become a sort of reality. I didn’t know where everyone else was, so I kept wandering when I found Kikyou. She wasn’t an illusion. I think she sought me out on purpose. Naraku tried to control her using a tainted shard of the jewel. He should have known that she couldn’t be controlled like that. He’d had to resort to his disgusting trickery to kill her in life. What really made him think that she’d be so easy to control after death?_ ’

InuYasha flinched. Her diary entry was one he wasn’t sure he wanted to read. He’d wondered for too long, whether or not Kikyou had really tried to kill Kagome. Now that he was about to find out, he was almost afraid of the answer.

‘ _She shot one of her arrows, and it grazed my cheek. I was scared, really scared. It wasn’t until later that I realized that Kikyou was a master archer. There wasn’t any way she could have missed me, if that had been her intention to kill me outright. I think the arrow was meant to scare me, as her way of telling me that I was somehow less than her. I think the arrow was only meant to do that, and to open up the pit that I slipped into._ ’

He frowned as he reread the paragraph. Kikyou said she’d tried to kill Kagome. Kagome didn’t think she had? That made no sense . . . unless . . .

‘ _Kikyou took my jewel shard. I couldn’t stop her. I was wrapped in her Shini-dama-chuu. They carried me up, and for a moment I thought that Kikyou would help me. I hung there, powerless to stop her, and all I could think was, would InuYasha care? Kikyou stole my shards, and I wondered about that. I could have died if I’d fallen. From where I was, I couldn’t see the bottom of that pit. I’m ashamed to admit that I wondered, if Kikyou killed me, would InuYasha even care? I don’t know what Kikyou wanted, in the end. Whether I was too far beneath her to bother killing me outright with her arrows or whether she just didn’t care one way or the other, she told InuYasha that she tried to kill me_.

‘ _When he asked me if she had or not, I didn’t know what to say. Tattling on Kikyou seemed so stupid, and yet this ugly part of me that I can’t control tells me that she wouldn’t have been upset to see me dead. So I suppose, in a weird way, she did try to kill me, and even if I told him, it wouldn’t change a thing because I know that deep down inside InuYasha still loves her._ _I wonder what it would be like, to have someone love you that much?_ ’

InuYasha closed his eyes against the sadness still evident in Kagome’s words. He’d known the truth, that Kikyou had tried to kill Kagome. He hadn’t wanted to believe it. Looking back, that was when he’d first started to understand that the Kikyou that had been resurrected by Urasue’s black magic wasn’t the same woman who’d died before. It didn’t make the truth any easier for him to take. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

He caught her hand and sat up, slowly turning to stare at her. She didn’t understand what he was talking about. He let go of her and folded his arms over his chest. “I asked you if Kikyou had tried to kill you, and you never said. Why?”

“Why did you have to ask me?” she countered softly. “She told you she did, and you didn’t want to believe her. If I had told you, would you have believed me then?”

Digging his claws into the branch, InuYasha struggled for a calm that he was far from feeling. She was right. He _knew_ she was right. It didn’t matter, though. “I thought you trusted me! If you trusted me, why didn’t you tell me what she did to you?”

She rubbed her hands over her face, as though she was tired, and she sighed. “What did you see, InuYasha? In the shouki? What did the Illusory Death show you?”

He didn’t answer. Scowling at the ground below, InuYasha couldn’t meet her gaze, couldn’t answer her question. That day over fifty years ago . . . the day his first life had ended . . . holding Kikyou, promising he’d protect her . . . and then . . . Kagome . . . “You’d be amazed what I saw,” he snarled. “I fought the miasma so I could save _you_.”

She laughed but the sound lacked any real humor. He winced inwardly. “It doesn’t matter now. You would have had to make a choice that I wasn’t willing to force you into making.”

“Keh.” As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, Kagome was right. The trouble back then was that, while his heart would have chosen Kagome, honor had bound him to Kikyou.

Staring up at the stars, Kagome’s eyes were bright with tears that didn’t fall. Arms wrapped over her stomach as though the gesture comforted her, InuYasha reached out, took her hand, pulled her into his arms. “I’d have followed Kikyou to hell, if she had asked me to. I owed her that. I never _wanted_ to go with her . . .” he trailed off and growled in frustration. “Never mind.”

She leaned away enough to look up at him. “You . . . you didn’t? Then why---”

“Keh! Stupid girl! Are you going to talk all night or are you going to be shut up and scratch my ear?”

Kagome sighed but sat back again. Satisfied that she would let the subject drop, InuYasha stretched out once more, conveniently letting the diary fall to the ground below. ‘ _Later_ ,’ he thought as Kagome scratched his ear. ‘Much _later_.’

“You dropped my diary,” she remarked.

“I know.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I thought you said you don’t like it when I play with your ears and you were only doing it so you could read my diary.”

“What of it?” he demanded.

“Then why are you letting me do it?”

“Because you like it.”

Her hand paused for a moment. “Oh . . . thank you.”

He yawned. “Don’t mention it.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **Shini-dama-chuu** : Kikyou's soul collectors.


	23. Museum

“Have you seen him?”

“Of course.”

Flexing claws crackled, popped as he waited for an answer. “Do not trifle with me. Did you test him?”

The answer was longer in coming. Measuring his words, answering in riddles, he smiled enigmatically. “Tested him? Surely you jest. You’ve been trapped under the paw far, far too long.”

“Mock me, little one, and you’ll force me to clip those wings.” He leaned forward, amber eyes locking with bright gold. “Tell me what you have learned, Waku.”

The hawk youkai’s smile was condescending, arrogant. “Ask me nicely.”

A warning growl, nothing more. It was enough. “Do not presume to trick me, Waku. I could kill you in less time than it would take to clean your blood from my hands.”

Waku regarded him coldly and finally answered. “He has a weakness.   All of his kind can be exploited. Tainted blood, you understand. InuYasha and his brother . . . They need to be humbled. How I hate their miserable stench.”

“You have no love of mortals?”

“Do not mock me. The Inu no Taisho’s sons will fall.” Waku detested the man, but he detested InuYasha more. He had nearly humbled the half-breed once. The next time he’d have to make sure that Katosan wasn’t around to save the hanyou. “Did you know? They both keep human pets. Fools . . . just like their father.”

He sat back with a marked lifting of his eyebrows, mock surprise adding a cold sheen to his intense gaze. He curled his lips. Just thinking about the Inu no Taisho was enough to sear his blood as hatred erupted inside, vile, bitter, and only to be appeased by the downfall of the two. “Do they? And it is your belief that this could be used to our advantage?”

Waku shrugged, his expression pensive as he stared at the other youkai. “There is a problem,” he finally remarked, gauging the reaction his words garnered.

“And you’ll tell me before I lose my patience?”

With a curt nod, Waku hid his humor behind his blank façade. “Katosan.”

“Katosan? The old dog isn’t dead yet?”

Waku shook his head slowly, keen gaze scanning the landscape, ever watchful, ever vigilant. “You know he lives . . . but then, I’d wager there isn’t much you don’t know.”

The low resonance; a laugh that sent shivers up Waku’s spine. “You flatter me. I _kill_ those who flatter me. Best you remember that, ne?”

Waku didn’t react to the insinuation. “What would you have me do about Katosan?”

“And this you must ask? Kill him. Katosan’s been a thorn in my side for far too long as it is. I will not have him interfering again.”

Waku nodded. “As you wish,” he remarked. With a low bow, the hawk took to the air. It was growing late, and home was too far away . . .

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“Tell me again, how did you trick me into coming with you?”

Kagome hid her smile as InuYasha grumbled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, InuYasha. I didn’t trick you.”

“Keh!”

She didn’t. All she did was mention that she had to go home. InuYasha hadn’t been very happy about that, insisting that they had things to do and that she didn’t have time to go running home every time they turned around—till she reminded him what he’d done to her calculus book. He hadn’t been gracious when he’d finally relented, but he had offered to come with her, and that was enough to shock her completely.

His soft whine drew her attention, and she glanced over to see what was bothering the hanyou. Stretched out on her bed with his back toward her and his cheek cradled in his raised hand, she couldn’t see his face. Her hand dropped away from his head as she leaned forward to look over his shoulder. “Something wrong?”

“Two hands, wench,” he growled, irritation apparent. “ _Two_ ears, _two_ hands.”

“One’s fine,” she argued, settling back again.

“It’s not! It throws off everything! Makes me feel all lopsided. You don’t want me to fall off your bed, do you?”

She rolled her eyes, not buying a bit of his reasoning. “You’re spoiled, do you know that?”

“Keh!”

“Two ears, one hand, and one calculus book. Get over it, InuYasha. I’ve got to study.”

He growled low in his throat. “All _right_ ,” he grouched, “I’ll remember that the next time I’m busy, and you want me to drop _everything_ to save you from some youkai.”

She sighed but smiled. “You’re such a baby,” she remarked as she closed the book and set it aside. He glanced over his shoulder and growled again. Her eyebrows arched in surprise. “Are you _growling_ at my calculus book? You’re _jealous_ of my math book?”

“Hell, no! It smells funny,” he grumbled. Kagome grinned as he turned away. She didn’t miss the telling hint of pink that crept over his face.

She rubbed his ears as he turned his attention to her diary again. He hadn’t wanted to read much of it since he’d read the entry when he’d found out exactly what had happened with Kikyou in the miasma. She hadn’t looked to see where he was.

His customary low rumble filled the small room, and Kagome sighed happily. What was it about that sound that she found so soothing? ‘ _Maybe it’s just knowing that he’s content_.’ Her smile widened.

Abruptly the sound stopped only to be replaced by a low growl that sounded much different from the one he’d directed at her book. More menacing, almost as though he was issuing some sort of warning, Kagome stopped rubbing his ears and leaned to the side, trying to see his face.

“InuYasha?”

He slammed the diary closed and shot to his feet before grabbing Kagome’s hand and pulling her off the bed. “Come on,” he growled as he headed for the door.

She tried to tug away. She should have known better. ‘ _He’s just a little too strong_ ,’ she thought with a grimace as he tugged a little harder. “Wait! Where are we going?”

“Keh!” he snorted, as though she ought to know the answer to that. “We’re going back.”

Somehow she managed to pull her arm away, and she crossed her arms, tucking her hands under her elbows for good measure. “I’m not going back until you tell me why.”

The disgruntled hanyou looked fit to kill. “That’s easy. I’m going to find Kouga and shove Tetsusaiga up his scrawny ass.”

“Kouga? Why?”

He glared at her, obviously thinking that she should know the answer to that. “What do you mean, why? Did you _read_ your diary?”

“I suppose, since I _wrote_ it,” she countered. “What’s this all about?”

For a moment, Kagome didn’t think InuYasha was going to answer her. Features set into the familiar stubborn scowl; he glared at the wall, trying his hardest to drill a hole through the wall with his eyes. “You told him you were seeing me, and he still tried to claim you! I’m going to fucking kill him!”

Kagome felt her face grow hot. ‘ _I forgot about that . . .’_ When Kouga had decided that she would be ‘his woman’ she told him that she was ‘seeing’ someone already. Kouga had figured it out quickly enough. He was just too obstinate to give up. Still, she’d forgotten that she’d written about that in her diary, and InuYasha wasn’t taking it well at all . . . _‘Wait . . . InuYasha isn’t mad that I said I was seeing him, he’s mad because Kouga_ ignored _me about it . . . but that would mean . . .’_ Her eyes widened at the realization, and she was sure her face darkened to a very nice shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red.

InuYasha was still blustering about ripping Kouga limb from limb. It really was amazing, how his eyes flashed and sparkled, catching even the tiniest bit of light. He prowled around the hallway flexing his claws as he struggled to control his irritation, and Kagome noticed again, the odd grace in the hanyou’s movements. It was beautiful to watch. It was impossible to ignore. Ears twitching like tiny radars, Kagome could almost feel the pent-up frustration behind his rapid pacing. _‘Poor guy,_ ’ she thought with a grin, ‘ _he really does try to keep his temper in check, even if he still hasn’t quite gotten it yet_.’

‘ _I’d better distract him before he does drag me back to the past and go after Kouga. I don’t remember ever seeing him quite this upset over the wolf . . ._ ’

Sudden inspiration struck her, and Kagome reached out, grabbing InuYasha’s arm as he stalked past. The look on his face told her that he thought she was about to tell him that he couldn’t kill Kouga, and he snorted. “Fine!” he snarled, “I won’t kill him but I ain’t promising I won’t _maim_ him.”

“InuYasha, come on.” Her hand slipped down his arm to grasp his hand in hers, and she headed toward the stairs.

He followed slowly. “Where?”

She smiled shyly and cleared her throat. “I owe you a date.”

His irritation dissipated as his eyebrows shot up then drew together. He seemed to be considering her offer even though a light flush crept up his skin. “Another date?”

“Just come on.” She stopped abruptly and shook her head as she regarded him. “On second thought, you’d probably better change first. You’ll draw enough attention with Tetsusaiga, and you really do need to wear shoes.”

He growled. He really did hate his shoes, and she knew that, but here, in the modern world, he just couldn’t run around barefoot . . .

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“Keh.”

“Lighten up a little. You look like you think someone’s going to attack us.”

InuYasha’s scowl darkened. “This is weird, Kagome.”

“You want to go somewhere else?”

He made a face. “I meant the clothes, wench!”

She giggled. “Oh . . . Well, there’s not much we can do about that.”

He narrowed his gaze on her. “You owe me.”

“We’ll see.”

He snorted in reply and strode over to a display of ancient katanas mounted on deep black velvet and encased in glass. He stared at the blades as a small smile surfaced. ‘ _Tetsusaiga’s much better than these pathetic human weapons_ ,’ he thought as his grin turned smug.

“Why is everything put up so you can’t touch them?” he asked as Kagome stepped up beside him.

“It’s a museum. You’re not supposed to touch most of the stuff.”

“Keh. Why have weapons you can’t use?”

She shrugged. “Well, for starters, we’re not living in fear of being attacked by youkai here.”

“Like to see them try to put Tetsusaiga behind glass,” he scoffed as he turned and dragged Kagome over to look at more swords.

He realized that he was acting like a pup as he pulled Kagome around the ancient weapon display. He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t realized that there was much in Kagome’s time that he was familiar with, other than her. It made him a little sad, though. Some of the weapons were youkai weapons. Of course the humans probably didn’t recognize them for what they were or they’d have sealed them behind more than just the glass casings.

Still youkai weapons were meant to be used. If they weren’t, the soul of the weapon died a little more with the passing of centuries. He could see the auras surrounding the pieces, no more than thin whispers escaping, mingling into one melancholy sound too weak for human ears to discern.

“Look,” Kagome said as she put a hand on his arm. “They’re having a private showing! Want to go in?”

He didn’t understand exactly what she was talking about. He glanced over where Kagome was looking and noticed that people were filing through doors that were closed a few minutes ago. “What’s that?”

She took his hand and dragged him behind her. “A local weapon collector has loaned some of his swords to the museum for a few hours.”

He didn’t say anything as he followed her into the room. Men stood around with patches on their shirts that proclaimed that they were the museum’s security team. InuYasha ignored them and let Kagome lead him to the nearest display cabinet.

The first case only contained daggers and small handswords with jewels embedded in the hilts and intricate carvings. InuYasha shook his head. “Those are useless,” he commented to Kagome. “You’d cut your hands on the jewels, and the others would slip out of your grip too easily.”

Kagome grinned at him. “Those were probably women’s weapons and more for show than for actual use.”

“Keh!”

She giggled.

They moved from one display to the next with InuYasha supplying a running commentary on exactly how useless many of the pieces were. They stopped before the highlighted showcase, and InuYasha blinked in stunned surprise. It couldn’t be . . . “What the fuck?”

Kagome gasped as she stared at the lone sword in the case. She looked about as shocked as InuYasha was.   She shook her head, as though trying to convince herself that she wasn’t seeing what she thought she saw. “That’s . . .”

“Tenseiga,” InuYasha finished for her.

“I see you remember this sword . . . InuYasha.”

InuYasha shifted his eyes to the side to stare at the man that had just spoken. “I’d know that sword anywhere,” he remarked tightly, frowning at the man’s stature, his bearing . . . his silver-white hair. “How did it get here?”

The man bowed slightly. “It has been graciously lent to the museum for the day.”

Kagome retreated a step, drawing closer to InuYasha’s side. He could sense her reticence, and he gently pulled her back a little more. “Who the hell are you?” he growled low enough that only the man could hear the question. Whether Kagome heard it or was just worried, he wasn’t sure. She pressed closer to him. She wasn’t scared. Kagome didn’t get scared often. She was worried, though, and InuYasha didn’t like that at all.

“InuYasha?”

“Yeah, I know,” he told her. ‘ _She can tell . . . She can sense what I can smell . . ._ ’

“This isn’t really the place to discuss that, is it?”

“No time like the present, youkai,” InuYasha assured the stranger as his hand gripped Tetsusaiga. “And you can tell me why you smell like that bastard of a brother of mine.”

The man glanced around. He broke into a tight smile—one not nearly wide enough to show his fangs. “Suffice it to say that, though I didn’t expect to meet you today, I can’t say that I am displeased, either . . . Uncle.”

 

 

 

 

 


	24. Uncle

“Uncle?” two voices echoed.

The youkai’s smile widened just a little, obviously enjoying the shocked expressions on their faces. “And you must be the miko, Kagome. I am Nibori, son of Sesshoumaru. My father speaks highly of you.”

“Keh! Sesshoumaru speaks highly of no one,” InuYasha snorted.

Nibori grimaced. “Not so highly of you, I’m afraid,” he remarked, regarding InuYasha with his cool stare.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me? This ain’t a coincidence. Tell me where that bastard is,” InuYasha snarled quietly.

“This is neither the time nor the place to have this discussion,” Nibori stated. He gestured for them to follow him as he headed toward the doors, pausing only long enough to speak to a security guard before glancing back to see if they were following.

“Stay close to me, Kagome,” InuYasha whispered in her ear as they headed toward the doors. “I don’t fucking trust him.”

“You don’t trust anyone,” she countered softly.

“Keh.”

Nibori was waiting for them in the middle of the sword display. Staring at one of the cases that held youkai weapons, Nibori looked vaguely distressed. InuYasha frowned. Did Nibori sense it, too? The mournful aura of the dying weapons?

“Father was going to be here today. He was called away on business. From what I’ve gathered about you, Uncle, that’s probably for the best, wouldn’t you say?”

“Don’t call me that,” InuYasha growled. “So where the fuck is he? I haven’t gotten to hack at him with Tetsusaiga in awhile . . .”

Nibori grinned. “Father told me of your great battles. So you are the reason Father has only one arm.”

Kagome rolled her eyes as she caught InuYasha’s smug smile. They headed up the stairs to the next level of the museum. She contented herself with listening to their discussion.

“I thought Tenseiga was his pride and joy,” InuYasha said. “Why’s he loaning it out?”

Nibori shrugged. “Father owed Mr. Yakamuso a favor, and it’s very well protected. Unlike those other youkai blades, Tenseiga is allowed its freedom.”

Yakamuso Hitori was the museum’s curator. Kagome had seen him once or twice when she’d visited here before. “Is he youkai?” she asked quietly.

Nibori laughed. “Oh, no. Mr. Yakamuso is one hundred percent human. There aren’t many youkai left nowadays.”

“Why? Aren’t youkai stronger and better than us ‘pathetic humans’?”

Nibori cleared his throat and looked away. “Some are, some aren’t.”

She frowned. He was being vague on purpose. Why? “Who’s your mother?” she asked, willing to change the subject and curious to see who Sesshoumaru had decided to marry. For some reason, she had trouble envisioning the stoic youkai with anyone. “Do we know her?”

Nibori shrugged. “In a way, I guess . . .” He suddenly chuckled, pushing his short silvery bangs back off of his forehead with a long-fingered hand. He didn’t have claws, either . . . “I should let Father explain all that to you. I’m sure he’ll wish to see you soon.”

“Keh! The feeling ain’t mutual,” InuYasha scoffed.

“Why do you look human?” Kagome finally asked. They stood beside the banister that closed in the upper level of the museum.

“Human?” InuYasha said with a loud snort.

‘ _He must see Nibori in his normal form_ ,’ Kagome realized.

Before she could remark on it, though, Nibori dug under the collar of his shirt to pull out a gold chain necklace with a single fang hanging from it. “Talisman . . . it conceals us from all but those of youkai lineage.” He tucked the charm away again. “Father’s fang is strong.” Quickly checking his watch, Nibori inclined his head to both of them. “It was good to see you two,” he remarked as he stepped back. “I wish I could stay longer and visit but I’ve got a prior engagement. If you’ll excuse me? I’ll inform Father of our meeting . . . Uncle,” he said, bowing slightly. “Aun—Kagome . . .”

Kagome watched as the youkai ran lightly down the stairs then frowned before turning to look at InuYasha in confusion. “Did he just call me ‘ _Aunt_ Kagome’?”

“Keh! Of course not.”

Her frown deepened. InuYasha might have sounded positive but he hadn’t looked nearly as sure of himself. ‘ _You’re hearing things, Kagome. Maybe all of Grandpa’s stories of your illnesses at school are starting to catch up with you_.’

She shook her head and shrugged. InuYasha was scowling at his nephew’s retreating back, too. Kagome grabbed his arm. “Come on, Uncle. There’s lots more to see in here.”

“Keh.”

He let her drag him off, though.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

‘ _Well, I’m home again, and this time I don’t care if I ever go back! InuYasha makes no sense—none at all! One minute he’s bent on finding Kikyou, and I could just fall off the face of the earth. He’d never notice. The next, he’s having a fit because Kouga pays a little attention to me. Granted, I didn’t really want his attention. Still . . . I’m glad InuYasha came for me. For awhile there, I was a little scared of what Kouga and his clan would do with me after I helped them find the shards. Then I was scared for totally different reasons. Well, not so much scared as I was anxious. It isn’t every day some guy declares his love for me. But I have to wonder, as much as InuYasha needs me around to detect jewel shards, is that the only reason that Kouga says that he loves me?_ ’

InuYasha glowered at the diary. He wasn’t sure what bothered him more: the idea that Kagome thought that the only reason he wanted her around was because of her ability to sense the jewel shards or the idea that Kouga had said that he loved her.

Ears flattening as a low grow escaped, Kagome leaned over his shoulder to see what had brought on such a reaction. “Still reading about Kouga?” she remarked dryly. “You could skip those entries, if they bother you.”

“Keh! Fucking wolf . . . I’m going to cut off his hairy legs and shove them up his—”

“You will not!” Then she giggled and leaned on his shoulder, her eyes light with a mischievous glint. “Jealous much?”

“Keh!”

“Gee, InuYasha. A little redder, and you’ll match your haori.”

“Wench! Leave me alone and let me read, will you?”

“Oh! ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red looks good on you,” she teased.

He jerked his shoulder to dislodge the girl and made a point of staring at her diary instead of at her.

Kagome relented with another giggle and resumed her attention on his ears.

‘ _Kagura called herself the Wind Sorceress. Sure, she is one of Naraku’s incarnations but even so, there’s something so regal about her that it makes me wonder why Naraku would care to create something or someone so elegant. She killed Kouga’s clan and then brought them back as zombies to make it look like InuYasha had done it. Kouga believed her, and he challenged InuYasha_. _Thank the gods that InuYasha is a decent person. The fighting was fierce, and I didn’t want to watch. In the end, Kagura had given Kouga a fake shard that had been poisoned with Naraku’s miasma. InuYasha offered to help, and though his solution was to cut off Kouga’s arm, it showed that InuYasha has far more honor in him than many more powerful beings. I think that it is this—InuYasha’s strength and belief in his own code of honor—that sets him apart and makes others want to be near him, like me . . ._ ’

InuYasha stared at the last line of the entry, blinking in surprise as he re-read the words. ‘ _I think that it is this . . . that sets him apart and makes others want to be near him, like me_.’

Slowly he closed the diary and set it on her nightstand before rolling onto his back. She didn’t stop playing with his ears, and her gaze was fixed on them.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked softly.

He made a face. “Hacking that damn wolf limb from limb and scattering the pieces all over Musashi.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re a little too bloodthirsty, you know.”

He caught her hand and held it. Her eyes finally met his. Burning bright and unafraid, her gaze shot through him, obliterating his senses in a rush of impetuous sensation. Her pulse raced through her veins, he could feel the rush under his fingertips. Her mouth opened slightly, the tip of her tongue flicked out to moisten her lips. The change in her scent hit him hard, and suddenly, he felt as though he were falling.

“Kagome . . .” he whispered.

Her answer was a soft exhalation.

He swallowed hard. He wanted to forget the things he knew. He wanted to ignore the voices in his mind, the ones that told him that she was too good for him. He wanted to push aside the taunts and the jeers, ‘ _Hanyou! Half-breed . . . loathsome half-man . . ._ ’

“I . . . I’m hungry,” he muttered as he let go of her and sat up.

Kagome sighed loudly.

She scooted off the bed and hurried out of the room. He caught the look she shot him as she opened the door and winced. She was furious. He could sense that from her without seeing it in her face.

It was the underlying pain that tore at him, the accusing in her gaze, the feeling that she thought that he had somehow rejected her. He hadn’t rejected her.

He’d rejected himself.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_NIBORI_** _: rising to eminence_.


	25. Cracked

“I don’t get it,” InuYasha remarked as he set Kagome on her feet outside the Bone Eater’s Well. “I mean, who’d be fucking stupid enough to have pups with Sesshoumaru?”

“At least your nephew seemed nice enough. How strange is that? He’s older than you are in my time. In this time, he’s not even born yet.” She shrugged. “In that case, I guess we shouldn’t tell Sesshoumaru about Nibori.”

“Keh! As if I normally talk to that bastard. The only thing he understands is fighting.”

“Still, Nibori was very nice, I thought.”

“Nice? Fuck!”

“InuYasha!”

“I’m telling you, there’s something weird going on. Nibori was a little too nice, especially if he’s Sesshoumaru’s son . . . and why the hell wouldn’t he tell us where Sesshoumaru was?”

She leveled a dark look at him. “Maybe Sesshoumaru told him that you and he don’t get along very well.”

He returned his version of the same look. “And once more, you understate the obvious, wench.”

Kagome dragged her backpack over her shoulder and shook her head. InuYasha took the bag and gently swatted her hands away when she reached for it again. She gave up after a moment with a pronounced sigh as the two headed toward the forest trail that led to the village. “Oh, come on! Sesshoumaru’s not _that_ bad,” Kagome remarked.

InuYasha stopped abruptly and whirled to glower down at Kagome. “What the hell are you saying? You don’t _like_ him do you?”

She made a face. “Of course not! I’m just saying that he has saved you a few times, and—”

“Keh! He hasn’t _saved_ me! I’ve never _needed_ that bastard’s help!”

“Well, he has helped, though, and you can’t say he hasn’t.”

InuYasha snorted. “Sesshoumaru’s like a parasite. He just won’t fucking go away.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “You have such a way with words, Dog-boy.”

“Keh. Move it, wench. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s starting to snow.”

“It was a little surprising to meet a fully-grown nephew, wasn’t it?” Kagome asked.

InuYasha shrugged. “Don’t much care. What should it matter to me if Sesshoumaru has one pup or a thousand?”

Kagome laughed. “A thousand? Ouch!”

InuYasha snorted, shifting the bag over his shoulder. “You know what I meant, wench.”

Kagome stopped short, her smile disappearing as she gasped and pointed straight ahead. InuYasha looked up to see what had brought on that reaction. “The hell?”

Miroku ducked behind a tree as Sango hurled Hiraikotsu toward him. The giant boomerang whistled as it sailed through the air. InuYasha dropped the bag and shot forward, drawing Tetsusaiga as he yelled, “Get down, damn it!”

The monk dropped as Tetsusaiga and Hiraikotsu collided. The boomerang stopped, and Miroku caught the weapon before it crashed down on his head.

“What’s going on?” Kagome asked as she ran over to survey the situation. “Miroku? Are you all right?”

“What the hell did you grope this time?” InuYasha snarled as he glowered at Tetsusaiga.

“I didn’t grope anything yet,” Miroku stated calmly as he shifted Hiraikotsu to rest on the ground.

“Oh, yeah? Then why’s she trying to take your head off?”

“Kagome! InuYasha! We didn’t expect you two back so soon!” Sango said as she joined them.

InuYasha narrowed his gaze on the youkai exterminator. Flushed and out of breath, he could smell her anxiety. “What the hell is going on?” he yelled to be heard over Kagome’s recap of their meeting with Sesshoumaru’s son.

“Going on?” Miroku repeated with a quick glance at Sango. “Nothing’s going on. Why do you ask?”

“Save it, lecher. I was asking Sango.”

Sango’s eyes widened. “Me? Oh . . . nothing, like Houshi-sama said. Nothing at all! You have a nephew, InuYasha?”

“Unfortunately. So why are you trying to off the monk? Not that I blame you.”

“There was a youkai,” Sango replied quickly.

“I don’t smell none.”

Sango forced a laugh. “No? Then I must have been seeing things.”

InuYasha shook his head and snatched Kagome’s bag out of her hands again after he dropped Tetsusaiga into the scabbard. “Fucking weird,” he remarked as he stomped away. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to get any real answers out of either of them, so why bother?

‘ _They owe me some answers_ ,’ he fumed as he stalked toward the village. Intercepting Sango’s stupid bone weapon before it could decapitate the monk had caused a small crack in Tetsusaiga’s blade. ‘ _Great . . . I wanted to hunt down that damn wolf cub, but now I’ve got to go see that old geezer instead. Totosai better not be hibernating . . ._ ’

“InuYasha! Where is Kagome?” Shippou asked as InuYasha entered the warm hut.

“Playing twenty questions with that pervert and Sango,” he retorted as he dropped the bag and sank down on the floor. The kitsune leaped at the bag. InuYasha caught him. “Back off, runt. Wait for Kagome.”

Shippou pouted but did as he was told. Kaede glanced up from the herbal powder she was making. “What vexes ye, InuYasha?”

He pulled Tetsusaiga out of the sheath and sank down by the fire pit. Rubbing the slight crack only irritated him more, and he snorted. “Keh! I stopped Hiraikotsu with Tetsusaiga, and it cracked.”

Kaede’s head shot up. “Cracked? Best ye get that fixed right away.”

For some reason, hearing someone else fretting over the blade calmed InuYasha’s exasperation. “I got it covered, old woman. I’ll just go have Totosai fix it.”

Kagome and Sango entered the hut with Miroku close behind. The girls were giggling and stopped talking when they caught sight of InuYasha holding Tetsusaiga across his lap.

“Something happen to Tetsusaiga?” Sango asked as she knelt beside Kaede.

“Yeah, you did,” he snapped. He got up and dropped the sword into the scabbard before stalking toward the door. He stopped in the doorway and stared at Kagome. “I ain’t waiting for you all day, wench.”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “Where are we going?”

“Totosai’s. Tetsusaiga got cracked. Now stop jabbering and come on.”

She frowned. “You never take me with you when you go see Totosai.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Keh! Suit yourself then. Stay here. I don’t care.”

“Interesting . . . Are we all invited or is Kagome special?” Miroku piped up.

“You and Sango are the reasons I have to go to see the old codger,” InuYasha pointed out. “Stay the fuck here, monk. You coming, Kagome?”

“I want to come along! I didn’t cause anything!” Shippou remarked.

“You’re staying here,” InuYasha growled.

“Why can’t I come along?”

“Totosai hates you.”

“InuYasha!”

“He does not!” Shippou argued. “He talks to me when he’s around!”

Almost ready to lose what was left of his patience, InuYasha snarled, “He’s just trying to get you on his good side so he can cook you, eat you, and use your bones to pick his teeth.”

“Totosai has teeth?” Miroku asked.

“Shut _up!”_ InuYasha bellowed.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never noticed whether or not he does,” Sango remarked.

“Kagome! InuYasha isn’t being nice!” Shippou cried, hurling himself into Kagome’s arms.

“InuYasha!”

“I don’t have time for this!” he declared and threw open the bamboo covering the door.

“Osuwari!”

“Damn—Ungh!”

“Stay here, Shippou. It shouldn’t take long, and we’ll come right back, right, InuYasha?”

InuYasha peeled himself off the ground and glared back at Kagome. “On second thought,” he growled, “I think I’ll go alone, after all.” He stood up and straightened his back with as much dignity as he could muster and threw open the bamboo divider again. After a moment, he glanced back.

Kagome knelt on the floor by the fire, shoulders slumped slightly as she listened to whatever Kaede was telling her. Maybe the others couldn’t sense Kagome’s slight upset. InuYasha sighed inwardly. He could, damn it. “Coming, wench?” he finally asked.

Kagome turned her head, staring over her shoulder at him. Slowly she smiled and got up, pausing just long enough to grab her coat and backpack before she skittered across the floor to stand beside him. He made a show of rolling his eyes before ducking out of the hut, waiting for Kagome to follow.

“Why do you want me to come along?” she asked as he pulled her onto his back and lit out of the village.

“Keh! Who said I wanted you to come along?”

She giggled and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “I like to be with you, too.”

He grinned as he sprinted across the land.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“What did you do to Tetsusaiga?” Totosai cried as he stared at the miniscule crack.

“Stop whining and fix it, will you, old man?”

“InuYasha was saving Miroku from having his head removed,” Kagome supplied helpfully.

“You’re lucky it’s just a tiny crack,” Totosai remarked as he dug through his gear. He pulled out the tongs he’d used to extract one of InuYasha’s fangs years ago to strengthen and repair the broken fang.

InuYasha felt a full-body shudder just looking at those tongs, and he covered his mouth with a hand. “Fucking forget it, you old crackpot,” he snarled.

Totosai looked duly befuddled. “Was it something I said?”

Kagome sighed and shook her head. “Can you fix it without yanking one of InuYasha’s fangs?”

“Fang? Why would I need a fang?”

“To fix Tetsusaiga, damn it!”

“Oh, yes, Tetsusaiga . . . nope, don’t need a fang for this small a crack,” he remarked. He stared thoughtfully at the blade and then slowly shifted his gaze to the hanyou. “You just want it repaired, right?”

InuYasha lifted his fist like he was ready to thump the old swordsmith. Kagome grabbed his wrist. “Calm down, InuYasha! It’s fine!”

“I could make it stronger,” Totosai remarked. “But . . . ehh, never mind. You don’t need it. It’s good enough as it is, for the likes of you.”

“Master Totosai, you’re not thinking what I think you are, are you?”

“Hey!” Kagome said, slapping her hand against her neck. Myouga fell away with a low groan. “I thought I recognized your voice.”

“Oi! Don’t be sucking on Kagome!” InuYasha growled, flicking the flea across the cave. Satisfied that Myouga wouldn’t be trying to suck Kagome’s blood again, he turned his gaze on Totosai. “Make it stronger? How?”

“Totosai, what are you thinking?” Myouga hollered, bouncing over to light on InuYasha’s knee. InuYasha readied his fingers to flick the flea again. Myouga hurried on. “You know what that would do! Do you think it’s a good idea? I mean—Aahh!”

“InuYasha, you should have listened to what he was saying before you flicked him,” Kagome pointed out reasonably.

“Keh.”

Totosai scratched his chin, staring at Tetsusaiga with a thoughtful frown. “Do you need this back today, InuYasha?”

InuYasha growled. “Now that’s a stupid question, old man! And what did you mean by making Tetsusaiga stronger?”

“Stronger?” Totosai repeated with a vacant look in his buggy eyes. “Did I say that?”

Flexing his claws, InuYasha growled louder. “Totosai—”

“He’s not ready for that, Totosai!” Myouga squeaked, hopping onto the swordsmith’s arm. “I’m warning you, that’s a really bad idea!”

Totosai sat back and considered Myouga’s warning. “I suppose you’re right. Don’t know what I was thinking . . .”

InuYasha reached over and thumped Totosai in the head. “Just fix it, will you? Come on, Kagome.” The hanyou stomped out of the cave without waiting to see if Kagome followed him or not. The girl got up and ran after InuYasha.

“Did you get enough, Myouga?”

Myouga rubbed his head and sighed. “Yes.”

Totosai held out a small wooden bowl. The flea spit the blood into it. Totosai stared into the bowl and shook his head. “We still need InuYasha’s blood . . . and you’re sure that she’s the one?”

“I’m sure, I’m sure!” Myouga insisted then sighed again before hopping off Totosai’s knee and bouncing toward the entrance. ‘ _I should get hazard pay for this,_ ’ he thought as he made for the grumpy hanyou. ‘ _InuYasha-sama better appreciate this . . ._ ’

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome rolled her eyes as InuYasha carefully raised Tetsusaiga and brandished it before him. It wasn’t his movements as much as it was the child-like happiness in his expression that prompted her response.

“Thanks, Totosai,” InuYasha said as he slid Tetsusaiga into the scabbard on his hip. “Guess you’re not so useless after all.”

“It didn’t take very long to fix it,” Kagome commented as InuYasha sat down beside her.

“I didn’t imagine it would,” Totosai remarked vaguely.

“So what’d you use to fix it?” InuYasha asked, obviously happy enough to carry on a civil conversation with the old smith.

“Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that . . .”

“Have you located Izayoi-sama’s diary?” Myouga asked from his perch atop InuYasha’s shoulder.

InuYasha’s mood darkened drastically. “It was destroyed.”

Myouga plopped down. “What?”

“Your mother’s diary?” Totosai asked. “Who says?”

InuYasha scowled, folding his hands together. “Katosan told me. He said that Mother’s family stole the journal from Sesshoumaru and destroyed it.”

Totosai scratched his head. “You don’t say . . . so maybe her journal _was_ destroyed. That doesn’t mean her _diary_ was.”

“What do you mean?”

“She kept two books,” Kagome whispered.

InuYasha narrowed his gaze as he stared at Totosai. “Did she?”

“Who?”

Issuing a low growl, InuYasha leaned forward to threaten Totosai.

“Come to think of it, there was a bit of confusion at the time,” Myouga commented. “I remember, she talked of both, as though they were two different things.”

“So if even if the journal was destroyed, the diary might not have been,” Kagome reasoned.

InuYasha shook his head. “So where’s the diary?”

Myouga sighed. Totosai scratched his head some more. Kagome waited for someone to speak. “I know of its existence. I never saw the diary, though.”

“Would Katosan know anything about it?” Kagome asked.

InuYasha shrugged. “Wouldn’t he have told me if he did?”

“He would, if anyone does,” Totosai spoke up. “He was there . . .”

“What do you mean, he was there?”

“Hmm, yes . . . he was. I forgot,” Myouga agreed.

“He was where?” InuYasha demanded.

“Katosan was there, when your mother was killed.”

“I don’t like him very much,” Totosai remarked. “He reminds me of someone else . . . can’t remember who . . . but I know I don’t like that one, either.”

“You want to go there again, don’t you? To see Katosan?” Kagome asked quietly.

“Keh! You have to ask?”

She frowned. If Katosan knew about the diary, too, then why hadn’t he already said something to InuYasha?

 

 

 

 

 


	26. Confrontation

“Why are we going so fast?”

InuYasha glanced over his shoulder and smirked at Kagome. “There’s a hot spring cave ahead. I figured it’d be warmer to camp there than anywhere else.”

“A hot spring?”

“No baths,” he told her.

“But if it’s a hot spring . . . .”

“Keh! You’d get sick, and I’d have to haul you back to the village, wasting my time because you’re a weak human.”

Kagome made a sound suspiciously like his infamous, ‘Keh.’

“You can’t use my noise against me,” he remarked.

“I won’t get sick, I promise.”

“Damn straight, wench, because you’re not getting a bath.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“But—”

“ _No_.”

She sighed. “InuYasha—”

“ _No!_ ”

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“This is wonderful! Ahh, a real bath!”

InuYasha rolled his eyes and wondered once more exactly how she’d managed to talk him into the bath that he said she couldn’t have. At least the cave was decently warm. “Hurry it up, Kagome,” he grumbled, all too aware of her splashing.

“Nothing like a hot bath!” she exclaimed happily.

InuYasha stifled the urge to sigh as his ears flattened just a little. The last thing he wanted to do was sit here and listen to her bathe. He had to be insane to allow her to do such a thing when it was so cold outside. ‘ _Baka! It makes her happy, and the cave is warm enough because of the hot spring. That’s why you gave in_.’

He got up and dropped a couple more pieces of wood on the fire and hunkered down near the flames, away from Kagome, away from the scent of the summer flowers that threatened to overwhelm his senses.

“Okay, I’m going to get out now! No peeking!”

“Keh!”

The water sloshed as Kagome waded out of the spring. As she neared, her scent grew stronger. InuYasha closed his eyes for a moment, forcing back the painful ache that built in his chest.

“I thought I smelled dog-shit.”

Cursing himself for not smelling Kouga’s approach, InuYasha stood slowly, bearing his fangs as he growled at the wolf. “Following us, Kouga? Can’t find your own shelter?”

Kouga opened his mouth to reply in kind. His rejoinder never came. Kagome uttered a small shriek drawing the notice of the two. ‘ _Oh, shit! How could I forget that?_ ’ InuYasha asked himself as he turned back around as quickly as he could. Completely naked, wet skin glistening in the warm firelight, she held a towel up but hadn’t gotten a chance to wrap it around herself. Under other circumstances, he even would have had to admit she really was something to see. With the damn mangy wolf standing there, though . . . . Hot flames exploded under his skin but were quickly shoved aside when he noticed that Kouga was still staring, jaw dropped, eyes bugged out. “Oi! Kouga!” he bellowed as he drew Tetsusaiga. “What the _fuck_ are you lookin’ at?”

It seemed to InuYasha that it took entirely too long for Kouga to drag his eyes off Kagome again, and when he finally did, he rounded his incredulous expression onto him. The wonder shifted into indignant suspicion, and he braced himself for InuYasha’s attack. “What the hell are you doing in here? You haven’t touched _my_ woman, have you, dog-shit?”

“I’m _not_ your woman!” Kagome hollered.

“Shut the hell up, wench!” InuYasha bellowed as Kouga’s head swung back.

“Incidentals, Kagome. You will be, once I get rid of mutt-face, here.”

“Think you can, do you, wimpy wolf?” InuYasha snarled as he brought Tetsusaiga up in ready.

Kouga turned his glare back on InuYasha. “I _know_ I can, dog-breath!”

Grinding his jaws together, InuYasha fought for control of his rapidly escalating fury. As far as he was concerned, the wolf had it coming. When had he ever bothered to listen to Kagome? Never. Well, he was going to rearrange his anatomy for that, and for the little bastard proclaiming his love to her, too . . . . “You’ve been warned, Kouga,” he said quietly, his voice shaking with rage, “ _She’s_ told you, _I’ve_ told you, but you fucking won’t listen. She doesn’t want you! She never has!”

“What the hell do you know about what Kagome wants? She’d be much better off with me than she is with you! Now stand aside, puppy, and let me claim my woman.”

“I know she don’t want a hella nasty, flea-infested bastard like you!” InuYasha lifted Tetsusaiga in a blur of color and motion. He started to bring it down with a fury when two small hands reached out to stop him.

“InuYasha, no!”

“Get back!” he demanded.

Kagome didn’t let go. “You can’t kill him! Please!”

“As if he could,” Kouga snorted.

InuYasha let the sword drop slightly, eyes narrowing as he got a good look at what Kagome was—or wasn’t—wearing. A string of colorful expletives echoed through the cave as InuYasha grabbed her arm and dragged her behind his back. “Why didn’t you get dressed?” he hissed, irritation with her skimpy towel-wrapped body warring with his desire to maim Kouga for life.

“I didn’t have time! You were trying to kill Kouga, remember?”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me,” he snarled, turning his attention back on the wolf youkai.

Kouga stood, arms crossed, watching their exchange in a bored manner. He yawned, lifting his hand to cover his mouth. “Give up, dog-face. I’m the one who should be angry. Once I claim Kagome as mine, you’ll never see her like that again. Better get a _go-o-o-o-od_ look while you can.”

InuYasha growled. “Damn you, Kouga, what the hell does she have to do to get it through your fucking head that she doesn’t want you, she’s never wanted you, and the only reason she kissed you, you pathetic wolf, was because you blackmailed her into it! Now go away before I do kill you!”

“At least she has kissed me, dog-shit. Jealous much?”

“Like I need to be jealous of a weak wolf like you! She’s kissed me, too, _and_ she did it without me having to blackmail her into it! She told you from the start that she was seeing me, and you didn’t listen! Now move it before I shove Tetsusaiga up your ass despite what Kagome wants!”

InuYasha felt Kagome’s forehead drop against his back, and he knew without looking that she was blushing. ‘ _Too damn bad_ ,’ he thought as he tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga. ‘ _If the fucking wolf would only listen, it wouldn’t have to come to this._ ’

“I’ll leave—after I speak to Kagome.”

InuYasha’s eyes narrowed. “Speak then.”

“Alone.”

“Over my dead body.”

“That could be arranged.”

“Keh!”

“Let me talk to him,” she said quietly.

“No.”

“InuYasha—”

“ _No.”_

“If I do, he said he’d leave, and—”

“ _Fuck_ no!”

She sighed. “Osuwari,” she mumbled. He hit the ground, and she stepped around him. “Please, don’t make me say that again, okay?”

He managed a growl even if he couldn’t get himself peeled off the cave floor. ‘ _Damn it! When I get myself up, I swear, I’m going to beat her . . . or him . . . yeah, him. That’d be good enough, fucking wolf . . ._ .’

“Damn it, wench! _Get back here! You’re not talking to that fucking wolf, and you’re _not _talking to him in_ that!” he bellowed as he managed to push himself up a little. “Kouga _—get your fucking hands off of her!_ ”

He wasn’t sure what was bothering him the most: the idea that Kagome wasn’t listening, the fact that she was still only wearing that little bit of cloth, or the sight of Kouga holding her hands. None of those things sat well with him, and he growled louder. Rage brought him off the floor, and he lunged forward.

Raising Tetsusaiga over his head, the only coherent thought in InuYasha’s mind was that the fucking wolf youkai was about to lose his hands since he couldn’t keep them to himself. Cleaving a neat arc, Kagome opened her mouth to say ‘it’, but the word never came. Instead, a bright blue barrier erupted around her, and though it didn’t cover Kouga, it did cover Kouga’s arms. The instant Tetsusaiga touched the barrier, InuYasha yelled as he was blown back across the cave. He hit the wall with a force that shook the ground and fell as blackness descended on him.

Kagome didn’t waste any time wondering about the hazy barrier. Jerking her hands away from Kouga, she skittered across the cave to kneel beside InuYasha’s unconscious body.

“InuYasha?” She pushed his bangs off his face, slapped his cheeks gently as she tried to rouse him.

“What happened to dog-shit?” Kouga asked as he hunkered on InuYasha’s other side.

“I don’t know,” Kagome answered, her voice tinged with concern. ‘ _Where did that barrier come from? I didn’t do that . . . did I?_ ’ She shook her head slowly. ‘ _I wouldn’t have . . . InuYasha wouldn’t have hurt me_ . . . .’

Kouga snorted. “Just when things were starting to get entertaining,” he complained.

Kagome shot him a dark look for that, and Kouga relented. “I think you should go before InuYasha wakes up.”

Kouga caught her hand, forcing her to look at him. Those bright blue eyes were intense, questioning. “Why do you want to stay with him? He ignores you, he’s rude to you, he doesn’t give a damn if he upsets you. So why him?”

She pulled her hand away and stared at InuYasha’s face. Relaxed in forced slumber, he looked so different from the InuYasha she knew. Kinder, gentler, more vulnerable . . . . She lifted her gaze to the wolf youkai again. “. . . I love him.”

Kouga didn’t like her answer. He snorted loudly and shoved himself to his feet to stalk across the floor. “He doesn’t deserve your love, Kagome! He never has! Don’t you get it?”

She shook her head and sighed. “It isn’t something you can earn, Kouga. I can’t help it. It’s just how I feel, and I’m sorry if that hurts you, but . . . I’m sorry.”

Kouga didn’t answer for a long time. He sank down on a rock and waited while Kagome pulled InuYasha’s head onto her lap. His breathing was even, as though he slept. He’d hit the wall hard enough to cause small rocks to tumble down, and she frowned as she tried to figure out what had caused the barrier. She certainly hadn’t done anything. A barrier that strong? Strong enough to repel Tetsusaiga? InuYasha had strengthened the sword long ago, had earned the ability to break barriers with a technique that turned the fang a glowing red. The barrier that had surrounded her had been stronger than even those barriers. She could feel its power. But where had it come from?

“I came to tell you that I’ve decided to take Ayame as my mate,” Kouga said softly.

Kagome turned her head to stare at Kouga. “You did? When did you decide this?”

He sighed then chuckled. “Honestly? I remembered her when she first came to me. But it’s so much more fun to harass mutt-face, you know?”

Kagome rolled her eyes but smiled.   “You two are weird,” she remarked. “You’ve done all that on purpose?”

Kouga grinned. “Yeah, though I gotta admit, I was sort of hoping you’d change your mind. Can’t say I envy you. He’s about as thick-headed as they come.”

Kagome sighed. “I know.”

“Anyway, I was on my way north to bring Ayame back. I’ve got a long way to go . . . .” He got up and headed toward the cave entrance. He stopped and turned back. “Do me a favor? Don’t tell dog-shit what I said. It’s kind of fun, baiting him like that.”

Again, Kagome shook her head. “All right,” she agreed. “Good luck, Kouga.”

“Thanks . . . oh, and Kagome?”

She idly smoothed InuYasha’s bangs off his face as she stared into his sleeping countenance. “Hmm?”

“You might want to get dressed. You’ll freeze if you don’t, and InuYasha _is_ a dog . . . .”

She flushed. Kouga’s laughter lingered long after he sped out of the cave.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

InuYasha woke slowly, as though he didn’t dare come around all at once. An odd lethargy infiltrated his bones, and he sat up with a low groan. Kagome stirred. She leaned back against the rock wall with her head tilted against her shoulder. InuYasha made a face. ‘ _That couldn’t have been comfortable . . . wait . . . where the hell did Kouga go?’_

“How are you?” Kagome asked, waking up quickly when she saw that InuYasha was sitting up. “What happened?”

InuYasha shook his head slowly. The last thing he remembered was Kagome, surrounded by a bright blue aura, and then he remembered being blasted back . . . he glared at Kagome. “You happened to me, wench! What was with that barrier?”

“I didn’t do that!” she argued gently. “I didn’t have anything to do with that!”

“Keh!” He flinched as his head erupted in a dull ache again. “Then who did?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Where’d that fucking wolf go?” he asked, dropping the question of the barrier since neither of them had any idea what had caused it.

Kagome got up and dropped two logs on the smoldering fire before ripping open a cup of ramen and adding water to it. “He left.”

“I thought he was here to claim you.”

She smiled at the sulky tone in his voice. “I told him I wasn’t his woman.”

“Like that’s ever stopped him before.”

She shrugged. “So he finally listened.”

The look InuYasha cast her wasn’t convinced. “If he comes around again, I swear I’ll kill him, and I don’t care how many times you say ‘it’. He’s got it coming.”

She sank down, sitting on her heels with her arms wrapped over her knees, and held out the cup of ramen. “Here.”

He took it but set it aside to catch her hand. “Did you . . . you didn’t . . . if you wanted to go with Kouga . . . .”

“Oh . . . no . . .” she trailed off, fretting at her lower lip. “Did you want me to go with him? You wouldn’t have to worry about having a ‘pathetic human’ slowing you down . . . .”

Suddenly he grinned. “Keh! Where would I get ramen if you did?” Her gaze fell away though not before he intercepted the hurt that registered in her eyes, and he sighed. ‘ _Baka! Why can’t you just say what you’re thinking instead of stupid stuff that makes her think you don’t care?_ ’

She pulled her hand away and stood up with a soft sigh. “I’m going to bed now. Goodnight, InuYasha.”

He scowled at Tetsusaiga. Lying beside him in the dirt, the scratched, rusted blade seemed to pulse. He rested his hand on the hilt and sighed. ‘ _Someday_ ,’ he thought with a wince as the scent of salty tears wafted to him, ‘ _someday, Kagome . . ._ .’

 

 

 

 

 


	27. Warmth

“Are you warm enough?"

Kagome nodded but didn’t expend the energy to speak. Her jaw hurt from clamping her teeth together. Huddled under the blanket in the cave, even the decent fire InuYasha had built up did little to dispel the subzero temperature. Add that to her damp clothes and the damp blankets, and there wasn’t much comfort to be found, and there wasn’t much warmth, either.

“Talk, wench. Normally I can’t get you to shut up.”

She forced her heavy eyelids open and pulled the blanket closer. “Ab-b-b-bout what-t-t-t?”

He sighed and scowled as he stood up and stepped over to the cave’s opening. “About anything. Just talk.”

Kagome curled herself up tighter and let her eyes close. ‘ _So sleepy_ ,’ she thought as her mind started to drift. ‘ _Just sleep . . . mm?_ ’

“Don’t fall asleep, wench! Wake up, okay? Kagome!”

‘ _InuYasha’s talking to me . . . should . . . answer . . ._ .’

Something nudged her. It brought back the cold, the pain of her aching body that hurt from the shivering she’d done. She whimpered as her body reawakened from the numbness that had settled over her and that had brought her a moment of peace.

“What would you rather be doing right now?”

“Hmm?” Her mind was too sluggish, too slow to digest InuYasha’s softly uttered question. ‘ _He’s lying down with me? Under the covers . . . and he’s warm . . ._ .’

She didn’t see his relieved expression as she gravitated toward the warmth of his body. He curled around her tighter, willing his body to help hers stay warm. “Tell me about your school.”

“Don’t . . . wanna go . . . .”

He shook her slightly, willing her to open her eyes. Sesshoumaru’s words came back to him in the gloomy cave, ‘ _Get up and move. If you lay down in this cold, you will not rise again._ ’

She moaned softly but didn’t open her eyes. InuYasha whined softly as he nudged her with his nose, arms tightening around her. Limp in his arms, no more than a whisper of a girl, InuYasha shook her a little harder. “Kagome! Damn it, wench! Open your eyes!”

His cheek rested on hers, and he winced. Her flesh was so cold, too cold. Her clothes were still damp from the driving snow that had beat at them from mid-morning and into the afternoon as they’d struggled to find shelter somewhere. In the end, this cave was the best he could find, but by then the temperature had already dropped significantly, and it was only getting colder. The cave offered shelter from the blowing winds and icy snow but the frigid cold permeated the rocks, the earth, and Kagome, having already endured the elements for the greater part of the day, was nearly frozen. He had to do something to get her warm quickly.

He sat up, careful not to let any of the cold air under the blankets, and jerked open his haori and undershirt. Kagome’s sweatshirt and tee-shirt fell victim to his claws. She didn’t move, didn’t flinch as he tore through. He pushed the clothing off her and pulled her against his chest, wrapping her in the folds of his haori. At least it was warm and dry, he figured. “Come on, Kagome . . . wake up . . . .”

Her skin was cold, clammy, and InuYasha held her as close as he could. “Kagome? Can you hear me? Wake up . . .” he shook her gently. She whimpered. Relief washed over him, despite the pitiful sound of her discontent. “You can be mad at me later, wench. You can say ‘it’, if you want, as much as you want . . . just don’t . . . . Just wake up!”

“In . . .u . . . Yasha?”

Hot tears stabbed his eyelids as he squeezed his eyes closed against the sound of her voice. Relief washed over him in merciful waves, and he blinked quickly, pulling her even closer. Her body started to shiver almost violently, and he did his best to quiet her.

“C-C-C-Cold,” she stuttered. “S-S-S-So c-c-cold.”

“I know,” he whispered in her hair. “I’m sorry, Kagome. I should have left you behind.”

“N-N-No . . . I w-w-wanted to come with you,” she answered.

He jostled her when she fell quiet again. She moaned in protest. “Wake up, Kagome. Talk.”

“Tired,” she mumbled.

He sighed. “I’ll let you sleep after you’ve warmed up,” he promised. “But for now, you’ve got to talk.”

She whimpered.

“I’ll shake you,” he warned.

“I don’t like you right now,” she shivered, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

He heard the tears behind her voice, and that kept him from taking her words to heart. “You don’t have to like me, but you do have to keep talking. So why don’t you like me right now?”

The deep breath she took quivered, and he squeezed her tight. “Because I’m tired, and you won’t let me sleep,” she whined.

“You’d keep me awake, too, if you had to.”

She shook her head slightly. “I wouldn’t . . . I’d let you sleep, if you wanted to . . . because I’m nice, and you’re not.”

He swallowed back the lump that rose in his throat. She really had no idea how close she’d come to freezing, did she? ‘ _That’s it, Kagome, keep talking . . . ._ ’ He shifted, drawing her closer. She whimpered in protest. “Are you any warmer?”

“No,” she sniffled. “You keep moving.”

“You pout a lot, wench,” he goaded.

“Look who’s talking! The master of the sulky pout!”

“I don’t sulk.”

“You do! You—” she cut herself off with a sharp gasp. “What did you do to my . . . where’s my . . . InuYasha!”

Panic. Red hot panic. He knew she wasn’t going to like it, when she realized what he’d done to her shirts. His grip tightened on her before she could hop up and osuwari him straight to hell. “I wouldn’t have had to if you had the sense to put on something dry,” he grumbled.

“InuYasha . . . let go of me,” she said in a deadly-quiet voice.

“No.”

She hesitated before continuing. “Why not?”

He couldn’t stop his ears from flattening against his head as he admitted, “Because you’ll say ‘it’.”

“I’ll say ‘it’ if you don’t let go,” she warned.

“Keh! You’ll be flattened, if you do, stupid girl.”

She sighed. “At least let me put a shirt on,” she grumbled. He could tell from her tone that she was blushing.

“Promise you won’t say ‘it’.”

“InuYasha!”

“Waiting.”

“This isn’t . . . Let go!”

“Could wait all night,” he growled.

She choked back an embarrassed sob. “Fine.”

He let go and scooted out from under the blankets, satisfied that she’d keep her word.

“Osuwari!”

“What’d you do that for?” he snarled as he pulled himself off the ground.

“Why do you think, you dog?”

He didn’t trust himself to speak. He dragged off his haori and tossed it to her before stomping toward the front of the cave again. ‘ _That’s the last time I save her from freezing_ ,’ he fumed as he stared out into the blinding whirl of snow.

Kagome stared at InuYasha’s retreating back before letting her gaze drop to the haori he’d thrown at her. ‘ _Why did he give me this? There’s no danger in here, and I’ve got more clothes in my bag . . ._ .’

Okay, so it was dirty of her, to say ‘it’ after she’d promised not to. It wasn’t as though she was even angry at him, really. Nope, just really, really embarrassed . . . . ‘ _Still, he only gives me the haori if there’s a danger, and I can’t sense anything . . . just the . . . cold . . ._ .’

Her eyes widened, and a low groan escaped her. He’d found this cave, and by then, Kagome had thought that her entire body was numb. The first thing he’d done was drag her bedroll out of the backpack, telling her to cover up before she froze. Then he had made short work of finding wood and starting a fire.

As though her mind had been as numb as the rest of her, she hadn’t been able to answer him when he started firing off questions at her, and she hadn’t noticed when he had gotten under the blankets with her, either. Had she almost succumbed to hypothermia? ‘ _Don’t answer that, Kagome_ ,’ her mind instructed as she deliberately put aside the idea that she had been in danger, and that he had realized it, too.

‘ _He was trying to . . . save me . . . and I . . . ._ ’

She hopped up and dragged on the first thing she grabbed out of the bag, which happened to be an overly large navy blue turtle neck sweater before she grabbed the haori and ran after InuYasha.

If he heard her approach, he didn’t show it. Staring out into the snow with his arms crossed over his chest, he didn’t move at all. She gently draped the haori over his shoulders and forced herself to walk around to face him. “I’m sorry,” she said, unable to meet his gaze. “I didn’t realize . . . and . . .” she trailed off helplessly, unsure what she could possibly say that might convince him that she really was sorry. Staring at her hands clasped before her, Kagome felt the sting of rising tears and blinked them back, unwilling to let them fall.

Suddenly she felt the weight on her shoulders as InuYasha put the haori around her. She pulled it closer and dared a peek at him. He was staring over her head, a thoughtful frown drawing his eyebrows together. His eyes were unusually bright as he stared at the darkening sky, and he cleared his throat before he spoke. “I didn’t want you to know,” he mumbled. “It was _too_ close.”

A million images filtered through Kagome’s mind. How many times had he saved her? How many times had he showed up at the last moment, when she had desperately needed him, and in those moments, she had believed he’d come for her. How often had he known what she needed without having to ask? And how often did she ever tell him that she appreciated him?

With a muffled cry, she leaned forward, rose up, reached for him. She didn’t give him a chance to retreat, a chance to hide himself behind his gruff demeanor. Her lips brushed over his then returned. He stood still, rigid, and for a moment, Kagome thought he would pull back. Sensing his shock, his reluctance, she coaxed him with gentle kisses, following the outline of his lips. ‘ _Don’t leave me, InuYasha . . . ._ ’ Slowly, though, his arms closed around her, holding her gently, his lips returning the pressure as hers surrendered. The subtle shift brought a weakness to her knees, and she buckled against him. He caught her and held her as he moaned softly against her.

An effigy of light engulfed her, radiated toward him. The fissure of the energies between them transcended the night, wrapping them in the warmth of the moment, the surreal touch of light and dark, purifying and powerful, his indecision melted as the innate secrets were whispered, the stunning belief that she was meant to be with him. ‘ _Stay with me, Kagome . ._.’

All too soon, though, the intrusion of the bitter cold seemed to bring him back to his senses, and he sighed and hugged her. “Come on,” he said, his voice oddly husky. “You’ll freeze out here.” He must have sensed that her body wasn’t willing to cooperate though, because in the next moment, he swept her up and carried her back to the warmth of the fire.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** :

 

 

‘ _Okay_ ,’ InuYasha thought with a scowl. ‘ _Maybe kissing her was a bad idea._ ’

Kagome leaned over to hand him chopsticks. He took them, and her hand brushed his. He was sure it was accidental on her part. He still couldn’t stop the rush of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red that shot to his cheeks because of it.

‘ _Damn it_.’

“You’re not hungry?” she asked innocently, staring at him over her own cup of ramen.

Eyes shining in the light of the fire, she seemed to have completely forgotten the kiss that she’d instigated.

He’d carried her away from the entrance because, judging by the way she had looked, she wouldn’t have been able to move herself. He hadn’t bothered to figure out why she’d think that and had opted for the easy route, instead. Then she’d practically dove under her blankets the very second her feet touched the ground, emerging only long enough to start some water to heat for their dinner.

Since then, she’d barely spoken more than a few words, and he’d intercepted a few strange looks from her. The one he’d been able to discern seemed almost frightened, and that was enough to set him on edge, if nothing else had.

“InuYasha?”

He snapped back to the present with a scowl at his now-cold ramen. With a snort, he set the cup aside and shot to his feet, stalking back toward the entrance of the cave.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“Wood, wench! Unless you want to go get it?”

She didn’t answer.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** :

 

 

Kagome stifled a sigh as InuYasha stomped off. ‘ _I’m so stupid! Baka! He’s probably half-way back to Musashi by now . . . what was I thinking?_ ’

She sighed. ‘ _Admit it, Kagome, what really scares you is that you enjoyed that kiss_ too _much . . . and maybe InuYasha did, too._ ’

That was true enough. She hadn’t known what to do with the residual emotions that coursed through her, and when he set her down, she had done the first thing that came to mind, which was to hide under her blankets. He had given her an inscrutable look but hadn’t commented.

Then she’d spent the next hour or so trying to come up with something to say that didn’t sound either completely stupid or like she was begging him to kiss her again. In the end, she hadn’t been able to come up with anything. ‘ _Maybe I should have kissed more guys so I knew what to say afterward,’_ she thought then made a face. ‘ _What am I thinking? I’ve kissed one guy, and he’s stomping around outside looking for firewood in a blizzard._ ’

In the end, she got up and heated water for ramen, hoping that InuYasha’s favorite food would coax him out of the mood that resulted in the dark frown on his features. That had obviously not worked, either. She stared at his untouched ramen with a sigh.

‘ _Maybe you should kiss him again_ ,’ her mind prodded. ‘ _At least then he’d know you wanted to do it the first time_.’

Kagome moaned. That was the entire problem, really. She’d heard a lot about kissing. She’d watched tons of movies where kissing was involved. She’d read books that talked some about kissing. What she felt, though, when she had kissed InuYasha? That was something she’d never expected. Maybe it was naïve or stupid of her, but she really hadn’t realized it was possible to feel that sort of overwhelming emotion. She’d heard the phrase ‘lose oneself in a kiss’ before. She’d always thought it was kind of funny. How could you get lost in a feeling? The expression used to make her giggle.

She wasn’t giggling now.

InuYasha dropped an armload of firewood in a loud crash. Kagome jumped. She hadn’t heard him come back.

He sank down near her, balancing on the balls of his feet, as though he expected her to attack. She winced inwardly. He didn’t speak for awhile. Kagome had the feeling that he was trying to figure out a way to say whatever it was he was thinking. Finally, he cleared his throat as his gaze grew more intense, more irritated, as he stared into the flames.

“I’m sorry that I scared you.”

She frowned and shook her head. “You didn’t.”

He shot her a quick glance before his scowl flew back to the fire again. “I saw you, Kagome . . . it won’t happen again.”

She scooted toward him. He moved away. She stopped and shook her head slowly. “I wasn’t scared of you.” Slowly, hesitantly, his eyes shifted to meet hers, and she saw it: the self-disgust, the vulnerability . . . the all-consuming fear that she would reject him. Her heart crumbled. “It wasn’t you at all . . . .”

Confusion registered in his gaze, and he shook his head. “I don’t—”

Her eyes fell away, and she could feel the flush creeping up her cheeks. “I’ve just never . . . I’ve never felt like that before.”

It took a few moments for Kagome’s words to make sense. Very slowly the ugly emotions melted away, and he stared at her, eyes full of wonder, as though he was daring to believe her. He didn’t smile but he looked like it was a close thing. She almost hoped he’d reach for her. He did reach—for his ramen.

With a sigh, Kagome watched as he ate it—cold.

 

 

 

 

 


	28. Sesshoumaru's Deal

‘ _InuYasha went to find Kikyou again. Beaten up and battered, he still had to go find her. He was badly hurt, having had the Kaze no Kizu turned on him by Kanna’s mirror. But instead of resting, he went to her. Why does it feel as though a little part of me dies away every time he goes to find her? He tells me that he wants me to stay beside him, and yet he isn’t really free from Kikyou. She has a hold over him that is frightening to me. I can’t be angry with him, though, not really. The things I like the most about him are the things that make him go to her_ . . . .’

InuYasha stared at the entry. He’d known how much it bothered Kagome every time he’d chased after Kikyou. She’d never hidden her irritation. What he hadn’t realized was that it hadn’t only been irritation. The underlying hurt in her words stung him, the sense of hopelessness that surrounded the things she wrote in contrast to the things that he remembered her saying at the time made him question himself more and more often. How was it that he hadn’t realized that he was hurting Kagome? Had he just not wanted to know?

‘ _Or maybe those things were just easier to ignore at the time_.’

His scowl darkened. Maybe they were. ‘ _Speaking of ignoring_ . . . .’ He sat up. Kagome was taking another of her ‘tests’, and he was getting restless. “You about finished with that?”

She glanced over at him and shrugged. “In a minute.”

He tried not to let her preoccupied tone bother him. ‘ _Baka! You can’t always be the center of her world_.’ Stretching out on her bed, he spared a moment to bury his nose in her pillow, drawing in a deep breath as her scent engulfed him. Desire shot through him, and he ruthlessly stifled a moan. ‘ _Never should have kissed her_ ,’ he thought with an inward whine. ‘ _At least then I wouldn’t remember those feelings_ . . . .’ Both beautiful and frightening, the memory of that kiss had kept him awake late into the night ever since.

He had thought that he knew her before. It was so much worse now. More attuned to her movements, her moods, as though a part of him had become her in those moments, the sweetness of her kiss combined with the instinctive wish for more was enough to weaken his resolve, was enough to make him dare to hope for the things that had alluded him thus far. The question was, what did Kagome want?

InuYasha drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes as the smell of summer flowers and spring rain assailed him—the scent that was Kagome. He had tried to ask her what she wanted. The words had stuck in his throat. It wasn’t asking the question that frightened him. It was what her answer might be that kept him silent, the fear that she would turn him away, reject him, or worse, that she would ask him to be something that he couldn’t be.

‘ _The time isn’t right, anyway_ ,’ he told himself. ‘ _There’re too many things that haven’t been settled, like the Shikon no Tama . . . like Mother’s diary . . . . We need to go back, we need to figure out what happened to the diary. If I can find that, maybe_ . . . .’

He rolled to the side, staring at Kagome for long moments while she clicked away on the button pad. She called it a keyboard and had tried to show him how it worked. He didn’t have the patience for it. His claws got in the way and he’d hit two or three buttons when he meant to only push one. With a heavy sigh designed to let Kagome know what he thought of her ‘tests’, he turned his attention back to her diary.

‘ _When Goshinki bit and broke Tetsusaiga and InuYasha transformed into his ‘youkai’ form, I didn’t know what to think. I guess I didn’t know it was possible before then. I don’t think InuYasha knew it was, either. It scared me. I wasn’t scared of him. Maybe it was stupidity or blind faith, but whatever the reason, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. His eyes had turned red, and he growled and glared at me. I think that was one of the few times that I said ‘the word’ without being angry. I just didn’t know what else to do, and I don’t think that InuYasha liked being that way, either_ . . . .’

‘ _It wasn’t so much that I hated being transformed_ ,’ he mused. ‘ _It was the pure enjoyment I got from killing Goshinki that scared me . . . and the idea that I_ wanted _to kill more_ . . . .’ He shivered.

He sat up and set the diary aside. Feeling edgy, he tried to be quiet as he prowled around Kagome’s room. She shot him a pointed look, and he made a face. She couldn’t really blame him, could she? He’d been trapped far too long, first in the cave because of the blizzard, and now here while she took her tests.

“You didn’t have to come with me,” she remarked, as though she could read his mind.

“Keh. Yes, I did.”

She turned in her chair, staring at him with a slight frown. “You really think something’s up?”

InuYasha shook his head and sank down on the bed again. “I don’t know . . . Something just doesn’t seem right . . . you can’t feel it?”

A fleeting glimpse of worry flashed across her features. When she raised her eyes to lock with his, though, it was gone, and she forced a smile. “Everything’s fine,” she assured him. “Anyway, my tests are finished, if you want to go back now.”

InuYasha flattened his ears as the telephone rang downstairs. He hated being beside those things when they rang. More often than not he’d threatened to beat the thing to death, and had it not been for Kagome or Mrs. Higurashi’s presence, he might have actually done it.

He snorted and grabbed Kagome’s freshly packed bag before heading into the hallway toward the stairs. “I can carry that,” Kagome called as she followed him out of the room.

“Keh!”

“Then at least let me put this in there,” she said, waving her diary. He stopped long enough for her to tuck it into the bag.

“Kagome! Telephone!”

She squeezed past him and turned back to cast him a quick grin before hurrying down the rest of the staircase. He rolled his eyes but grinned slightly as he followed her.

“Going back so soon, InuYasha?” Mrs. Higurashi asked as he set the bag on the counter and leaned against the cabinets.

“Yeah . . .” he trailed off when he caught the odd look on Kagome’s face. She looked a little stunned, and he folded his arms together as he scowled.

“Let me get some stuff together for you to take back, then. You have room for more, right?”

InuYasha didn’t pay any attention to what Mrs. Higurashi started pulling from the refrigerator as Kagome’s stunned look gave way to one of confusion. When she finally said goodbye and hung up the phone, InuYasha was flexing his claws under the cover of his haori sleeves.

“That was Sesshoumaru,” Kagome said quietly.

“What?”

“He’s sending Nibori to get us.”

“There ain’t no fucking way I’m going anywhere near that bastard,” InuYasha growled, snatching the bag off the counter before he grabbed Kagome’s hand. “Come on!”

She tugged away and ran around him to plant her hands on his chest, stopping him in his tracks. “Wait! He said he found something that you’ve been searching for, and he said that he wants to make a deal with you.”

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

InuYasha prowled around the opulent room, bearing his fangs and growling low in his throat, like he couldn’t help but make that noise. Kagome sighed but kept quiet. She could understand his reticence. To say that the brothers were on shaky terms was putting it mildly. Still, Kagome had to wonder what Sesshoumaru would be like now, five hundred years after she’d first encountered him.

Nibori watched his uncle with undisguised amusement lighting his golden eyes. “How do you put up with that?” he muttered to Kagome.

She shrugged. “It’s not so bad . . . normally he yells.”

Nibori made a face. InuYasha snorted. “Keh! In case you’re wondering, I can still hear you!”

“Uncle—” InuYasha interrupted Nibori with a louder version of his growl. “Would you care for something to drink while you’re waiting for Father?”

“I already told you! Stop calling me ‘uncle’.”

Nibori bowed. “Pardon, I forgot.”

The doors at the far end of the room opened, and Sesshoumaru strode in followed by . . . Kagome’s eyes widened in shock. InuYasha stopped abruptly as he caught sight of the woman, too.

“Kagura?” InuYasha asked incredulously. “You died . . . how . . . ?”

The woman smiled slightly and nodded. “I’m not Kagura, though I’ve heard some interesting things about her. My name is Leikizu, and you must be InuYasha. Sesshoumaru has told me . . . some about you, though not nearly as much as he could have.” Her magenta eyes shifted to meet Kagome’s still-shocked expression. “And you must be the miko, Kagome. Welcome to our home. Would you care for some refreshment?”

“This ain’t a social call,” InuYasha remarked. “What the hell do you have that you think I’d want, bastard?”

Sesshoumaru very deliberately ignored InuYasha’s slur and strode over to a thickly padded black leather sofa. He hadn’t aged at all in his looks. In his human disguise, his youkai crests were hidden, and his hair was much shorter. But his eyes were the same cold amber, though maybe not quite as cold as they used to be. He still possessed his regal bearing, and his demeanor still demanded a quiet sort of respect. ‘ _Does he still dislike InuYasha?_ ’ she couldn’t help but wonder.

“Ignore InuYasha,” Sesshoumaru commented to Leikizu. “He’s always had the manners of a common mongrel.”

“What do you want?” InuYasha demanded again.

“On the contrary, baka. It isn’t something I want. It’s something that you want. Surely the miko told you this?”

“Don’t look at her,” InuYasha growled when Sesshoumaru’s gaze settled on Kagome. “She said you had something. Now spit it out or we’re leaving.”

Sesshoumaru took his time rising out of the sofa and gliding over to the desk behind him. Kagome shook her head, wondering why it was that, of all the people she’d ever seen, Sesshoumaru was the only one whose gait could be considered ‘gliding’. He moved so slowly, so elegantly, with such fluidity that watching him walk was like watching a wild horse gallop over the open landscape.

The youkai turned back from the desk holding a very old-looking book in his hands. Slowly he opened the cover and glanced up at InuYasha before studying the first page and snapping the book closed once more. “Know you what this is, InuYasha?”

An odd sense of recognition filtered over InuYasha’s features, as though he had seen the book before but was only now remembering it. Eyes colliding between the two men, Kagome could feel the tension in the air rising thick like fog, like a blizzard, like a storm cloud rolling over the horizon.

“Mother’s diary,” he whispered. “How the hell did you get it?”

“Do you want it?” Sesshoumaru countered.

“Did you read it?”

Sesshoumaru leaned back as though InuYasha had offended him. “Be not a fool, InuYasha. I have no desire to read the mindless chatter of a mortal woman.”

InuYasha started forward, hand on Tetsusaiga, ready to whip it from the scabbard without a second thought. Sesshoumaru set the diary aside before raising his hand, poised to strike with his energy whip. Kagome felt warm hands on her shoulders, and she jumped. Leikizu leaned down, eyes still trained on the men. “Come, Kagome. I think this is going to be ugly. Best we aren’t here to witness it.”

Hesitantly, Kagome got up but didn’t move. “I can’t leave him,” she said softly.

Leikizu smiled. “Sesshoumaru has no desire to hurt InuYasha, though it may seem otherwise.”

“InuYasha’s not the one I’m worried about,” Kagome remarked. She’d seen the brothers fight far too many times. More often than not, it was Sesshoumaru who came out a little worse for wear. Though she had a feeling that Sesshoumaru hadn’t ever truly intended to kill InuYasha, she couldn’t honestly say the same about InuYasha.

“Sesshoumaru will be fine. Come.”

Kagome followed Leikizu out of the room but paused in the doorway to look back again. InuYasha and Sesshoumaru stood less than four feet apart, glowering at one another as though they’d both rather tear into the other. Nibori was sitting in one of the overstuffed leather chairs with an amused expression. ‘ _Give him a bowl of popcorn, and he’d be good to go_ ,’ Kagome thought with a frown.

Leikizu lead Kagome through the mansion, pausing here and there to show her a painting or an artifact. Sesshoumaru had amassed quite an empire over the centuries. It was like walking through a private museum.

“Where did Sesshoumaru get InuYasha’s mother’s diary?” Kagome asked during one of the short lulls in the tour.

Leikizu gestured for Kagome to follow her into the kitchen. “He bought it a few days ago at the annual antique auction,” she explained as she opened the refrigerator. “Water? Soda? Juice?”

“Water’s fine, thank you,” Kagome answered. She sat down in the breakfast nook with Leikizu. “Why would he buy it? He and InuYasha haven’t ever gotten along . . . . I don’t understand.”

Leikizu smiled almost sadly as she stared out the window beside them. The perfect blanket of snow was untouched except the path that had been cleared to accommodate vehicles.

“Sesshoumaru has changed much over the years. You could say that he learned some things the hard way. He’s learned to appreciate things that he took for granted long ago.”

Kagome stared at the wintry world outside the window without actually seeing it. “It makes sense, I suppose. People change over time . . . but you don’t know about Naraku?”

Leikizu sighed. “I know only that which has been told to me. I wasn’t born until after Naraku’s demise, and I didn’t meet Sesshoumaru until later, either. He has told me of your quest for the Shikon no Kakera, and of your triumph over Naraku.”

“Still, whenever they crossed paths before, they normally ended up fighting. That was how Sesshoumaru lost his arm,” Kagome explained.

Leikizu chuckled softly. “Many things happened, you see. After Naraku was defeated, there were many things that I cannot tell you because I knew nothing of them, and there were other things that I cannot tell you because, when you travel back to that time, they’ve not yet come to pass there.” Leikizu’s eyes shifted to stare at Kagome, as though willing her to understand what Leikizu couldn’t say. “Do you know the difference between fate and destiny?”

“Fate is what you’re meant to do, and destiny is who you’re meant to be,” Kagome answered simply.

Leikizu shrugged. “True. You’re wise for one so young. Just remember, you cannot change your fate, but you can change your destiny.”

Kagome stared at the youkai with a confused frown. Her words made sense. But why did Kagome feel a sadness underlying Leikizu’s words? She sighed. It seemed as though Leikizu was speaking in riddles, saying things that Kagome ought to understand but didn’t quite grasp.

“You look exactly like Kagura,” Kagome couldn’t help but say as she stared at Leikizu. It amazed her, actually. While she, herself, might have had a remarkable resemblance to Kikyou, she also knew there were very marked differences in their looks, too. Kagura and Leikizu, however, could have been identical twins.

Leikizu laughed. “Does it bother you, that I so closely resemble Kagura? Don’t worry. Sesshoumaru told me about her. I didn’t understand, in the beginning. From the first time I saw Sesshoumaru, there was something about him. I felt as though I needed to be with him. His soul spoke to mine, as though he knew me. I came to find out that I am, indeed, Kagura’s reincarnation. I’m not her, and she wasn’t me.” Leikizu sat back then suddenly smiled. “Then again, perhaps you understand this better than anyone?”

Slowly, Kagome nodded. “I think . . . I do.”

“Certain souls gravitate to each another. Yours and InuYasha’s. Mine and Sesshoumaru’s . . . some things are meant to be. It was my _fate_ to meet Sesshoumaru. It is my _destiny_ to be his mate.”

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“Answer me, bastard. Why do you have my mother’s diary? Why didn’t you let me have it before, when I came searching for it?” InuYasha ground out, teeth clenched together as he struggled for a calm that he didn’t have.

Sesshoumaru shook his head and flexed his fingers in obvious anticipation. “I did not have it back then. It has recently come to me. Do you truly wish to challenge me? Or do you wish to have your mother’s memento?”

InuYasha straightened his back, staring at Sesshoumaru with a heavy dose of suspicion. “What do you want for it?”

With an insincere smile that set InuYasha’s teeth to grinding, Sesshoumaru chuckled nastily. “Everything has a price, InuYasha. Surely you know this by now. Though you possess nothing I truly desire, I do have an offer for you. Give me what I ask, and you may have your mother’s diary. If not, the book shall be destroyed.”

InuYasha glared at his brother for another minute. Sesshoumaru’s expression was impassive. “You ain’t getting Tetsusaiga.”

“Don’t make me laugh, InuYasha. I’ve no desire to possess that tainted sword.”

“This ‘tainted sword’ has more power in it than you’ll ever know.”

Sesshoumaru let his hand drop as he shook his head slowly. “I think not, InuYasha. Tainted by the fang of a half-breed like you? You disgrace our father.”

“And you think I’ve ever cared?”

A fleeting glimpse of emotion filtered through Sesshoumaru’s gaze. InuYasha leaned back in momentary surprise. Sadness? Sesshoumaru was sad? About what? The emotion was quickly covered up, buried under the more characteristic arrogance, the hard bitterness. “That is how you disgrace him.”

“Keh! I don’t care! I’ve never cared! Just tell me what you want, if not Tetsusaiga.”

Sesshoumaru regarded InuYasha. Finally he nodded once, blinking in acknowledgement of InuYasha’s question. “So be it. It’s simple, InuYasha. In exchange for your mother’s diary . . . I want your fang.”

 

 

 

 

 


	29. The Second Diary

“How’s your mouth?”

“Keh.”

Kagome wisely hid her amusement as the two neared the village. “Why did Sesshoumaru want one of your fangs?”

“If I knew,” he remarked haughtily, “I’d have told you.”

Kagome wasn’t so inclined to agree. “You never tell me things that you think will upset me.”

InuYasha snorted. “Look who’s talking? You don’t tell me everything, either. You wait till I read it in your damn diary.”

“That’s _so_ not true,” she argued. “I tell you a lot more than you tell me.”

InuYasha’s snort proclaimed that he didn’t agree at all. He held the bamboo cover back so that Kagome could enter Kaede’s hut. A brown blur flew at her, knocking her back. InuYasha caught her and reached over her shoulder to slap Shippou on the head though not hard enough to hurt him. “Careful,” he warned.

“You’re supposed to be nice to me,” Shippou complained. “Remember?”

InuYasha plucked the kit out of Kagome’s arms and marched back outside with him.   Kagome considered following but figured that if InuYasha broke his promise then he’d just have to endure the teasing he was trying too hard to avoid. Instead she knelt beside Sango and dug into her bag as he friends greeted her.

“Here,” Kagome said, offering Sango a folded parcel of beautiful blue cotton material.

Sango gasped as she stared at the fabric. “Kagome! This is lovely! Thank you!”

Kagome grinned and delved into her bag again. She dragged out a paper bag full of energy bars and some paper booklets on philosophy and religion. Always careful not to bring back anything that wasn’t so easily destroyed, Kagome had avoided bringing Miroku books that she knew would interest the monk. But paperback booklets seemed safe enough, and many of them were no more than pamphlets. She pulled her hand back, however, when she got a good look at the monk’s face. “What happened to you?” she gasped, leaning forward to gape at Miroku’s black eye.

“Oh, my eye? That was nothing,” Miroku assured her. “Just ran into a little trouble. It’s fine now.”

Kagome dropped Miroku’s gifts into his lap and rummaged through her backpack to dig an instant ice pack from her things. She worked the packet to mix the chemicals inside and handed it to the monk. “Here,” she said in a no-nonsense tone. “Put that on it. It should help reduce the swelling.”

She fumbled around in her bag once more to pull out a length of cheesecloth material and a huge ball of twine for Kaede. “These may help for your herbs,” Kagome explained as she handed the items over. Kaede smiled as she looked over the items.

The last gift items in her bag were for Shippou and InuYasha. She had to sneak in the thing she’d picked up for the hanyou. It wasn’t much, but Kagome hoped it would make him happy. ‘ _You just want to see if you can fool him into kissing you again, Kagome. Admit it. You want him to_.’

Kagome felt her skin warm and prayed that the others didn’t notice.

Shippou ran through the doorway just before InuYasha. To her surprise, the kit looked happy, and he hopped onto Kagome’s lap with a bright smile. “InuYasha said you brought me something, Kagome!”

She grinned and retrieved five boxes of pocky, all in different flavors, and a new box of crayons. “Don’t eat it all at once,” she warned as Shippou grabbed the boxes and hopped off her lap.

“You spoil us,” Miroku said with a wide smile as he held his hand perpendicular to his face and bowed.

“Kagome, didn’t you bring anything for InuYasha?” Shippou asked around a mouthful of strawberry pocky.

The flush that she’d just managed to get rid of shot to the fore again. She glanced over at the hanyou, who was busy drawing his claws over Tetsusaiga and didn’t appear to have heard the question. She figured he had and was simply ignoring it though she didn’t point that out, either. “InuYasha’s busy right now,” she remarked, hoping that no one noticed anything odd in her reply.

“Oi, Monk!” InuYasha suddenly called, sheathing Tetsusaiga and rising to join the rest of them around the pit fire. “What do you know about—” He trailed off, leaning in closer to examine Miroku’s eye. “What the fuck happened to you?”

Miroku waved his hands before his chest, as though trying to push away InuYasha’s line of questioning. “Nothing important. Do I know anything about what?”

InuYasha shot Kagome a questioning glance. She shrugged. He peeked around Kagome at Sango. “Did you do that?”

Sango’s eyes widened in surprise. “Me? Why would I do that?” she asked with a high-pitched giggle.

“She did,” InuYasha muttered to Kagome.

Kagome nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

InuYasha thought it over a moment then shrugged before turning back to face Miroku once more. “Tell me what you know about barriers, will you?”

Miroku looked a little caught off guard. Scratching his head thoughtfully, he stared above their heads as though looking for answers no one else could see. “Well, there are many kinds of barriers, InuYasha. You already have the ability to break all but a few of the strongest with Tetsusaiga, and what you can’t, I’m reasonably sure that Kagome could. Any particular reason?”

InuYasha sank back with a dejected snort. “Just trying to figure out something.”

“We met up with Kouga,” Kagome added. “InuYasha tried to attack him but this strange blue barrier appeared over me and over Kouga’s arms—”

“Kouga’s arms? Why his arms?”

“Because _someone_ was letting that mangy wolf hold her hands,” InuYasha remarked.

Kagome fought down another flush before she continued, “Anyway, it repelled InuYasha. Tetsusaiga couldn’t break it.”

“Interesting,” Miroku mumbled, rubbing his chin as he considered Kagome’s words. “Interesting, indeed . . . Kouga doesn’t know how to cast a barrier, does he?”

“Even if he could, he’d know that InuYasha wouldn’t hurt Kagome,” Sango added.

“I don’t think it had anything to do with Kouga,” Kagome said slowly. “It was almost as if . . .” She shook her head quickly, realizing how stupid her words would have sounded.

“As if what?” Miroku prodded gently.

“Oh, nothing. Just a weird thought,” Kagome said with a nervous laugh.

“InuYasha, ye went to Totosai to repair Tetsusaiga?” Kaede asked.

InuYasha nodded. “Yeah. So?”

“What did he use to repair the blade this time?” Miroku suddenly asked, apparently catching onto whatever Kaede was thinking.

“I dunno,” InuYasha answered slowly. “I went outside to wait, and a few minutes later, he was done.”

Miroku stared across the fire at the old miko. “Kaede, tell me. Do you think it possible that Master Totosai somehow imbued Tetsusaiga with the ability to cast a protective barrier?”

Kaede looked puzzled. “Nay . . . it would be nigh impossible to instill such powers without having some sort of spiritual energy to do so, and this Totosai is youkai, correct?”

“That’s right,” InuYasha answered, paying keen attention to the conversation. “But there was a barrier around Kagome, and she said she didn’t put it there.”

“Mayhap ye _should_ go ask Totosai about this,” Kaede remarked reasonably.

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! I’ve had enough of the old man for now. He’s almost as annoying as you, hag.”

Kagome rolled her eyes as Kaede cast her a meaningful look. “Osuwari.”

“Ugh!”

“Be nice.”

“You’re one to talk!” he growled as he pushed himself up again. “Like that was nice, wench.”

Kagome shook her head. “I meant, be nice to Kaede.”

“Keh!” he snorted as he sat up again. “Then say what you mean.”

Kaede got up slowly and took up the small wooden bucket that she used for water. Kagome hopped up and took it from the old miko. “I’ll get it for you,” she offered.

InuYasha stood and swiped the bucket from Kagome. “Keh!” Before she could stop him, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the hut. She grabbed the small item she’d brought back for him and ran after him.

She caught up with him as he headed down the path toward the stream. “What are you doing out here, wench? Trying to freeze? Where’s your coat?”

“It’s not so bad today,” she argued lightly. “I brought something back for you.”

“Keh.”

She smiled. He was trying not to act like he was interested but the sudden sheen that lit his gaze gave him away. She held out the pink envelope. He stared at her a moment before he took it. “What’s this?” he asked as he pulled out the flat stone suspended on a thin, black leather strip.

She shifted nervously. “It’s a wishing stone.”

He stared at it, turning the flat red stone over in his nimble fingers. “What do I do with it?”

“You hold it and make a wish.”

“A wish for what?”

She shrugged. “Anything you want. It’s supposed to work, or so they say. My father gave it to me before he died.”

He reached out slowly, hooked her hair behind her ear. “Have you ever made a wish on this?”

“Yeah, once.”

“Did it come true?”

Kagome smiled. On that night so long ago, the night her father died, she stared out her window, staring at Goshinboku, staring at the full moon, and she had wished that she’d have one good friend, someone who made her feel as safe as her father had. Staring into InuYasha’s eyes shining with the light reflecting off the snow, she thought maybe . . . “Yeah, it did.”

A mix of longing and confusion, of fear and desperation crossed his features. He leaned toward her as her stomach filled up with butterflies as he moved in, closer, closer . . .

A loud crash made Kagome jump. InuYasha shoved the stone back into Kagome’s hands, telling her to hold it for him as he dropped the bucket and dashed. Kagome raced up the path behind him. Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kaede followed out of the hut. Whatever it was sounded big.

“InuYasha! Come out of hiding and face me!”

Kagome recognized that voice. She ran back to the hut and after grabbing her bow and arrows from beside the door, she dashed outside again. One of the huts on the outskirts of the village had been flattened. Miroku caught her arm as she tried to dodge past them. “A friend of InuYasha’s?” he asked quizzically.

“His name is Waku. He’s a hawk youkai. He attacked us while we were traveling to Katosan’s castle the first time.”

InuYasha stared at Waku with a scowl on his features. “What the hell do you want?” he growled.

“InuYasha, I’ve come for the Shikon no Tama. Hand it over, and I may spare this paltry village from tasting my wrath. If you refuse . . .” Waku sent a blast of wind at another hut. With a deafening crash, that hut exploded, too.

“Keh! Awfully far from home, aren’t you?”

“Unlike you, puppy, it doesn’t take nearly so long to cover such distance. Shall I give you a demonstration?” He flew at InuYasha, who managed to dodge aside before Waku struck. With a jeering laugh, Waku landed and nodded at him. “You avoided me once. You won’t be able to do so all the time. Care to give up now?”

“Dunno where you got your information, Waku, but I never give up!” InuYasha lunged at the youkai, his claws slicing through the air in a flash of movement too fast to discern. “ _Sankon-tetsusou!_ ”

Waku escaped InuYasha’s attack easily, laughing as his claws swiped at the empty air. “Let me throw you a bone, fuzzy,” Waku taunted, whipping his wings as a whirlwind blasted toward InuYasha.

Another blur of movement as InuYasha ripped Tetsusaiga from the scabbard and hefted it. In a blinding flash of white light, Tetsusaiga was slicing through the air, the wind barely wrapping around the blade before he slammed it into the ground, the waves of fire flashing forward to meet the manufactured tornadoes head-on. “ _Bakuryuuha!_ ”

The energies collided and twisted together only to break back in two waves. Waku shot up into the air, avoiding the swirling tornadoes as they passed and slammed into the break that was InuYasha’s Forest. Trees lifted, shook, splintered as the Bakuryuuha died away.

“His speed is incredible!” Miroku remarked as he watched Waku’s slow descent.

“The mark of the hawk youkai,” Sango observed. “InuYasha might have trouble with this one.”

Waku’s laughter rang out again. InuYasha growled as he glared at the youkai. “Is that all you’ve got, Waku?”

“On the contrary, puppy, I’m just getting started.” Launching himself forward, he caught InuYasha’s arm as the hanyou tried to roll out of the way.

“You missed, bastard,” InuYasha snarled as he got to his feet again and renewed his grip on Tetsusaiga. “I’d hate for you to have come all this way to suffer a quick death.”

Waku shot forward as InuYasha hurled himself toward the hawk. They collided in mid-air. Waku screeched in pain as InuYasha’s claws dug into his arm. Waku fell. InuYasha landed and lunged again, bringing up Tetsusaiga over his head and slamming it down with a bellowed, “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ”

Waku’s golden eyes flashed as he propelled himself off the ground, straight toward InuYasha. Moving so fast that he broke through the wall of flames created by the Wind Scar and emerged unscathed, InuYasha didn’t have time to get out of the way as the youkai barreled straight toward him. Waku’s talons tore into InuYasha’s chest as a harsh scream was ripped from the hanyou. Waku bore InuYasha to the ground, the vicious sneer on his face contorting as he flexed his embedded talons, wrenching another agonized cry from InuYasha.

Kagome didn’t think. On instinct alone, the overwhelming desire to protect gave way to a curious calm as she nocked back and arrow and took aim. The arrow flew through the air, gaining speed and energy, the pinkish hue of her spiritual energy evolving as the arrow split the cold. It hit Waku’s arm, knocking the youkai off InuYasha. Sango gasped as the appendage exploded into a million shimmering lights. Waku screeched in pain as he spread his wings and took off.

“What was that?” Shippou whispered, his voice full of awe at Kagome’s display of power.

“I didn’t realize you had that much power, Kagome,” Miroku remarked softly. He glanced over where Kagome had been standing, but the miko was gone. Her bow and arrows lay scattered on the ground, but she was already next to InuYasha, assessing his wounds and apparently trying to wake him.

With a sharply indrawn breath and a few muttered curses, InuYasha sat up with an arm over his stomach. He grimaced as Kagome helped him stand, and he let her drape his arm around her, her arms holding onto him to steady him. “Where the fuck did he go?” InuYasha growled as Kagome slowly led him toward Kaede’s hut. The villagers who had gathered outside to see what was happening moved aside to allow them to pass. InuYasha started to pull away from Kagome but stumbled. Miroku caught his other arm, and they dragged him into the dwelling.

“I’m fine, damn it! Get off me!”

“You’re not fine!” Kagome insisted, slapping InuYasha’s hands away as she tried to pull open his haori. Miroku grabbed her bag and set it down beside her. InuYasha sucked in his breath as Kagome succeeded in pulling his undershirt open. The fabric had actually been pushed into the wounds, and when she pulled it open, she had to tug a little to dislodge the material. She stared for a moment, a sick expression on her face. Then she swallowed hard and dug into her bag for the first aid kit she carried.

“Do you need anything else, Kagome?”

She shook her head and offered Miroku a grateful smile. “No, thanks. I can get it from here.”

Miroku nodded and left the hut.

“Just a scratch,” InuYasha maintained stubbornly.

“Kagome took her time cleaning InuYasha’s wounds, ignoring his blustering. The wounds were deep, and the flesh of his belly looked pretty much like hamburger. She bit back the bile that rose in her throat as she made sure that he was clean. Some of the bleeding had stopped by the time she had finished cleaning the wounds. She taped antiseptic gauze over the worst of it and sank back on her heels, forcing a smile that she was far from feeling for his sake.

InuYasha sat up and pulled his clothes back together. She didn’t miss his wince of pain as he struggled to rise. She shot to her feet and pushed on his shoulders until he sank back down on the futon. “And where do you think you’re going?” she asked mildly.

His mulish expression said it all. “Where the hell do you think? I’m going to find that bastard and finish him off.”

“You need to recover before you go looking for trouble,” she insisted. “And Waku won’t be back, at least for awhile.”

A suspicious glint entered InuYasha’s stare. “Why did Waku leave?”

“I shot him,” she confessed, unable to meet his gaze though she wasn’t sure why.

“Damn it, wench! What the hell were you thinking?”

She glared at him as her temper rose from his angry bellowing. “You could be grateful,” she yelled back. “He wanted to kill you! He tore your stomach apart!”

“You don’t get it, do you? You let him live! He’ll come back for you, just for revenge! You made yourself a target!” He flinched as his stomach reminded him of his injuries.

“I’m already a target,” she said softly, her anger draining away as quickly as it had come. ‘ _He’s not mad. He’s worried_ . . .’ With a sigh, she dug into her bag and pulled out the Shikon no Tama. “As long as I still have this, I’m a target. This is what Waku was after . . .”

InuYasha digested that for a moment then sighed. “Myouga said not to purify it until after I found Mother’s diary. Well, I found her diary . . .”

His observation hung in the air between them, and Kagome considered it, too. “I think Myouga meant that you’re supposed to read the diary before we do this,” she finally said as she held up the jewel again.

He made a face then sighed again. “Keh. Let me have it, then.”

Kagome dug into her bad once more, rummaging around in search of the diary. Hers was there, along with her schoolbooks and everything she’d carefully packed earlier in the day. A sick feeling erupted in her belly as she slowly shifted her gaze back to InuYasha.

“InuYasha . . .? It’s gone . . .”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Sankon-tetsusou_** _: Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer_.  
>  ** _Bakuryuuha_** _: Backlash Wave_.


	30. BakaYasha

“What do you mean, it’s gone?” InuYasha asked, his tone, measured, clipped, way too calm. She could hear the underlying menace in his voice, and she renewed her efforts to locate the missing book.

Kagome started dragging things out of her bag as an almost hysterical panic gripped her. “I mean, it’s not here!”

“Did you fucking bring it?”

She shot him a dark look. “Yes, I did,” she replied. “I distinctly remember putting it in here!”

“Keh!” he snorted. “You left it; I know you did!”

“I didn’t—”

“Damn it, Kagome, can’t you do _anything_ without my help?” he bellowed, arm wrapped over his stomach. He’d rather scream at her than take care not to reopen his wounds . . .

‘ _Baka!_ ’

But InuYasha’s tirade wasn’t finished. “Are you _completely_ useless?”

She shoved everything back into her bag and stiffly stood.

“Oi, wench! Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Mustering as much dignity as she could, Kagome lifted her chin and blinked back upset tears. ‘ _Hold it together, girl! BakaYasha doesn’t deserve to see you cry!_ ’ With that in mind, she drew a deep breath. “I’m going to go back and look! Since you’re so convinced I can’t do anything without you, maybe I can find the book alone.”

He didn’t look very happy about her statement. His disgruntled expression shifted into ‘the pout’. “You’re coming right back,” he warned.

“Will I?” she tossed back over her shoulder as she hurried out of the hut before breaking into a sprint toward the forest.

‘ _Baka! Jerk! I know I packed it. I_ know _I did! It doesn’t matter what I do, he always yells at me!_ ’ she thought as she hurried along the path toward the Bone Eater’s Well. ‘ _I’ll show him! See if I ever come back! See how he likes that, the jerk! See how_. . .’ she swiped angrily at the tears that blinded her. ‘ _See how miserable I’d be_.’

She swiped the back of her hand across her eyes again. The hurt made her angry, and the anger made her heart ache. Kagome reached the well in record time and vaulted over the side without pausing in her stride. “ _InuYasha no baka!_ ” she yelled as the pink light opened up the time shift under her.

She landed on the bottom of the well on her side and took a deep breath to calm herself down before she ran into her mother and ended up having to make up something about why she’d been crying. ‘ _Tell her the truth . . . that BakaYasha is a jerk!_ ’

She whimpered, shaking her head slowly as more tears welled up in her eyes. ‘ _But . . . he’s just upset . . . I can’t replace that diary . . . the last thing he has left from his mother, and I’ve misplaced it_ . . .’

The well was dark, and she shuffled her feet as she reached out to feel her way to the ladder. Her toe hit something, and a soft scrape echoed off the walls. Kagome frowned and reached into her bag, feeling for a flashlight in the darkness.

After what seemed like forever, she finally managed to locate the light and flicked it on. The beam bounced around the small space, and Kagome frowned as it landed on the old diary. ‘ _What’s it doing here?_ ’ she wondered as she stooped to retrieve it. Relief rushed over her as she flicked off the light and started to pull herself up the ladder with one hand. She had her other arm wrapped securely around the book.

‘ _I’d better go give him his mother’s diary. I’ll just come back. I could use a few days here, anyway_.’

She pulled herself onto the edge of the well and let out her breath, feeling her bangs rise with the gust of air that escaped. ‘ _Just give it to him and go_ ,’ she thought with a wry grimace as she hopped off the ledge and into the fissure of light.

The soothing light wrapped around her, and Kagome felt some of her upset ebb away, but as the light closed over her, she suddenly realized that the book wasn’t in her arms anymore, and she shook her head. “Where is it?” She had it. She _knew_ she did . . .  

As soon as her feet hit the bottom of the well, she dragged herself up the vines about half way. With a mental sigh, she pushed herself away from the wall and dropped, half expecting the warp to reject her for misuse, but the light returned, and for the fourth time of the day, she found herself surrounded in the pink glow.

She wasn’t surprised this time, to find the diary lying at the bottom of the well. ‘ _It can’t pass through_ ,’ she realized as she sank down, cradling the book on her raised knees. ‘ _How can I explain this? What am I going to tell InuYasha? Why can’t the book pass through the well?_ ’

Something she’d heard at school came back to her, and she frowned, staring at the diary in her lap. ‘ _The same matter cannot exist in the same plane . . . and if that’s true, then that means the diary can’t go through the well because, even if it is still lost in that place, it is still there . . . right? Because if it weren’t still there, I wouldn’t be holding it now_ . . .’

InuYasha’s words came back to her, and she sighed. ‘ _Damn it, Kagome, can’t you do_ anything _without my help? Are you_ completely _useless?_ ’

A small sound, something between a groan and a sob escaped her just before Kagome smashed the back of her hand over her mouth. She stared at the diary, illuminated by the weak flashlight and made a face. ‘ _He_ did _say I could read it,_ ’ she reasoned. ‘ _I’ve held up my side of the bargain. I’ll just read a few pages before I go tell InuYasha_ . . .’

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

InuYasha hesitated a whole thirty seconds before pushing himself off the futon with a wince and a grunt of pain. Stumbling toward the door, strength of will was the only thing that made him shuffle his feet forward since his guts twisted in agony with even the slightest movement. ‘ _Bastard got me good_ ,’ he thought with a frustrated scowl.

“InuYasha!” Kaede chided as she stepped into the hut followed closely by Sango, Miroku, and Shippou. “Shouldn’t ye be resting?”

“Yes,” Miroku agreed as he stepped forward and tried to force InuYasha back toward the futon. “Those are serious injuries.”

“Back the fuck off!” he snarled then flinched as pain shot through his guts. “Out of my way.”

Shoving off the monk’s hands and glaring at the old miko before she could touch him, Sango alone stood between him and the doorway. “I don’t think you should follow her,” Sango said coolly.

“I don’t give a damn, what you think,” InuYasha remarked as he started to step around the exterminator.

Sango put her hand to his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. “She looked very upset, InuYasha.”

“I’m going,” he said, controlling the urge to wince as another stabbing pain hit him.   This one, however, wasn’t in his stomach. This one was suspiciously close to his heart . . .

Sango stared at him for a long moment then conceded, stepping aside as InuYasha left the hut.

He had to stagger to the well, which only served to darken his already bad mood. He was only midway through the forest when Kagome’s unmistakable voice reached him, “ _InuYasha no baka!_ ” The sound was distorted—she was obviously already in the time slip—and he winced.

Seconds later, the air felt still, hollow, and an odd melancholy, a desolate emptiness surrounded him. It was like this every time Kagome left. As though the entire forest could sense the disturbance, InuYasha hated the idea that there were five hundred years separating the two of them.

He had just reached the empty meadow when light filtered from the well, and moments later, he could feel the welcoming aura that surrounded Kagome. Pushing himself harder, he stumbled forward only to drop to his knees in silent confusion as the light erupted again and Kagome’s aura faded away. ‘ _What the hell? Why’d she come back and leave again?_ ’

With a deep breath, InuYasha pushed himself to his feet once more, determined to get to the edge of the well. ‘ _I didn’t mean that . . . I didn’t mean any of it_ . . .’ His ears flattened against his head as his shoulders slumped. With a sigh of relief, he sank down beside the well, forearms resting on the edge of the wall, chin dropping atop his folded hands, he stared into the darkness with a soft whine.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

‘ _My Darling InuYasha_ ,

‘ _This is not so much a diary as it is a very long letter to you, my son, my angel. Things that I want you to know that, if the fates are willing, I will be able to tell you in person. In case it doesn’t happen that way, I want you to know the story—the entire story, and I hope one day you’ll understand. I pray that you will not make the same mistakes your father and I have made. I pray that you have the courage to fight for those things that may seem beyond your reach. I pray that you’ll never need the words I’ll impart to you here because I want your world to be filled with love and joy and peace. When I look at you, I see your father, and that is where I should begin. In closing, please know that there was never a time when I held you in my arms and in my heart that I did not love you, that there was nothing in this world I wouldn’t give to see you smile, my son_.

‘ _Always_ ,  
‘ _Your mother_ ,  
‘ _Izayoi’_

 

Kagome sniffled softly and wiped a tear off her cheek. She still had to wonder if InuYasha would be able to read this. The words his mother wanted to tell him . . . ‘ _Maybe I shouldn’t read this_ ,’ she thought as she bit her lip. ‘ _Or maybe, if I do . . . maybe I can talk him into reading it, too_.’

With a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a long moment then turned the page.

‘ _I remember what I thought when I first saw him. Bearing so regal, so aloof, so calm and calculated in his every movement, and I remember thinking that he was . . . beautiful. Later I would come to recognize these traits in him as signs that there were dangers near. At that time and in that place, as the spring breeze carried with it the scent of the cherry blossoms, it didn’t matter. Human, mononoke, youkai, whatever he might have been . . . to me, he was an unattainable dream_.’

Kagome smiled faintly, recalling her own unattainable dream—the beautiful hanyou, pinned to Goshinboku by the miko’s sacred arrow, eyes closed in fathomless sleep as his silvery hair billowed in the spring breeze, as the scent of cherry blossoms filling her nose as she gently tweaked those adorable ears . . .

‘ _The centipede youkai bore down on me, telling me that she would feed me to her young. She tried to take me away with her, to her lair. He stopped her. He stepped into her path, and he drew his sword. It wasn’t a remarkable sword. He said it was a simple blade, though he said at the time he’d never had a reason to have another forged. With this blade, he cleaved the youkai in half, and she dropped me. Before I could fall, he caught me. Staring into those eyes was like gazing too long into a fire. He asked me if I was injured, and after I assured him that I was not, he set me on my feet and told me to run. I did, but I stopped as I reached the shelter of the trees of the wood known as Inu no Taisho’s Forest. Silly girl that I was, I didn’t realize that he was this mysterious being, this Inu no Taisho. I looked back in time to see the centipede bite into his hand. I think I started running toward him, concerned as blood flowed from the wounds. He brought up his sword and yelled the words that I still hear in my heart, “You are not worthy of her!” though perhaps I was the one not worthy of him_ . . .

‘ _The centipede was engulfed in flames that shot out from his hand. He had an affinity for flame, he told me later as I bandaged his hand. He touched my cheek, stroked my hair, and the sadness in his gaze made me want to weep. He told me that humans and youkai did not belong together. They were never meant to coexist, and that surely the humans would suffer for it. He looked as though this made him sad or angry, perhaps both. I remember, I thought I would have followed him anywhere, if he would only have asked it of me_.’

‘ _How many times have I followed after InuYasha?_ ’ Kagome wondered then sighed. Had Izayoi felt that way? She’d thought it before, that, though she worked to keep up in school and maintained a normal life on this side of the well, in her heart, she knew she wanted to be with InuYasha, wherever, whenever he chose to be. She smiled slightly but the smile turned sad as she thought with a whimper, ‘ _He’s probably still mad at me, and he’s hurt . . . I never should have let his words bother me so much!_ ’

She gasped as the wells suddenly filled with pink light, and slowly InuYasha rose from the time slip. Looking as though he was ready to pass out, he didn’t notice her right away as he leaned against the wall, breathing ragged and labored.

“InuYasha?”

“Aaahh!” he shrieked, flattening himself against the wall as his ears smashed down against the sound of his own shock. “Damn, wench! Don’t do that!” Suddenly he moaned and slid down into a slouch. “Why are you sitting in the well?”

“I found your mother’s journal,” she answered. He started to open his mouth to gloat about being right in his assumption that she had left it behind, so she hurried on. “I didn’t forget it. It can’t pass through the time slip.”

“Why not?”

Her eyes fell away as she sighed. He sounded as though he blamed her for the book not passing through the warp. She shook her head. “I think it can’t because it still exists in your time,” she admitted softly, trying to keep the hurt out of her tone, the fresh ache that his irritation opened up deep down inside.

He shifted his position, stretching his legs out as he slumped back against the wall a little more. Kagome’s chin rose, and she gasped. “Your injuries! Why didn’t you stay behind and rest?” She dropped the book and crawled across the floor to kneel beside him. “Let me see,” she said gently, reaching to pull the haori open so she could check his bandages.

He slapped her hands back gently. “Get me out of here,” he mumbled.

“Okay . . . can you climb?”

“Keh.”

Hurriedly she shoved everything into her bag and left it on the ground as she looped his arm over her shoulder and helped him to his feet. He shuffled over to the ladder with her help, and he slowly pulled himself up a few rungs.

Kagome cried out and dropped to her knees beside him when he fell. He landed with a dull grunt of pain and a hiss of expelled breath. “InuYasha . . .”

He shook his head and stubbornly pushed himself up again. “I’m fine,” he maintained. “Stay back, in case I fall again.”

Kagome didn’t argue as she helped him over to the ladder. This time he managed to get out of the well. She grabbed her backpack and clamored up as quickly as she could.

He was sitting on the steps waiting for her. “Can you make it inside?” she asked, pushing his bangs off his forehead. He was sweating. She winced.

He tried to make his standard ‘keh!’ The sound was weak. Kagome pulled his arm over her shoulder and helped him up again.

The trip between the well-house and the shrine had never taken so long. He was leaning heavily on her, and Kagome realized by the time they’d cleared the stairs out of the well-house that his haori was soaked in blood, and so was her side where he leaned on her. Deliberately ignoring it to stave back the rising tide of panic, she steeled her resolve. “Come on, InuYasha. We need to get you inside.”

She stopped every few feet to let him catch his breath. By the time they reached the doors, Kagome was near hysteria. The hanyou’s face was pale, ashen, and he wasn’t answering her at all, as though it was taking every last ounce of his strength, his determination just to keep moving.

Mrs. Higurashi looked about as close to fainting as Kagome felt, herself, when she came running to Kagome’s hoarse cry, “Mama!”

“Sit him down on the sofa,” Mrs. Higurashi commanded gently, recovering from the initial shock of seeing her daughter covered in blood. She still didn’t look as relieved as she should have when she realized that Kagome was unharmed and that all the blood had come from the hanyou.

InuYasha shook his head. “K’gome,” he mumbled.

“No,” Kagome argued. “That’s all the way upstairs, and—”

“K’gome,” he muttered a little louder.

The women exchanged worried looks. Finally Mrs. Higurashi grabbed his free arm and, supported between mother and daughter, they got him up the stairs and onto Kagome’s bed.

“Warm water, Kagome, and cloths, and don’t forget the first aid kit,” Mrs. Higurashi said as she sat down next to InuYasha. She reached to pull open the blood soaked clothing.

InuYasha grabbed her hands, pushed them back. “K’gome.”

Mrs. Higurashi nodded and got up. Kagome sank down beside him in her mother’s place while her mother went to fetch the items herself.

Despite her resolve not to worry InuYasha, she couldn’t help the little whimper that came out when she managed to get his clothes pulled aside. His white undershirt was the same scarlet as his haori, and the bandage she had applied to his wounds earlier were dripping with blood. She brought her trashcan over and dropped it in.

Mrs. Higurashi hurried in with the warm water and clean cloths while Kagome set to work cleaning out the wound again. InuYasha seemed to have passed out. Eyes closed, he didn’t even wince as she moved aside bits of torn flesh to clean underneath. The wound was deep, and in all his moving around, InuYasha had torn even more of his stomach open. “What happened?” Mrs. Higurashi asked in a whisper.

Kagome’s voice was oddly calm, almost unattached, as she answered her mother. “A hawk youkai attacked. He caught InuYasha with his talons.”

When Kagome spared a glance at her mother, she was surprised to see tears standing in Mrs. Higurashi’s eyes. Catching her daughter’s gaze, she brushed a hand over her eyes and forced a smile. “I’ll draw you a bath, dear, and I’ll make up some tea.”

Kagome turned back to InuYasha as her mother hurried from the room. ‘ _Coming after me and climbing that ladder must have reopened all these wounds,_ ’ she thought. ‘ _I shouldn’t have left him like that . . . I knew he was badly injured, and I should have known he’d come after me_ . . .’ she blinked back tears as she carefully cleaned him. “Oh, InuYasha . . . I’m so sorry.”

“No,” he whispered. She gasped. She hadn’t realized he’d regained consciousness. “It’s . . . my fault . . . ‘ _InuYasha no . . . baka’_.” She choked out a laugh, and he did, too. His weak laugh turned into a groan, and hers turned into a sob. “Keh . . . pathetic . . . wench.”

She wiped her tears on her shoulders as she bandaged him and gently pulled his arms out of his clothes. “I’ll wash these,” she said, tugging them out from under him and dropped them on the floor. She took a clean cloth and wiped off his face before leaning down to kiss his forehead. “Go to sleep, InuYasha.”

She got up to gather his things to wash. His hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her back down. “Stay?” he mumbled as his eyelids dropped closed.

Kagome sighed as she idly rubbed his ear. “I’ll stay.”

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

InuYasha woke slowly, blinking in the semi-darkness of the familiar pink bedroom. ‘ _Kagome’s room . . . Damn, I hurt_ . . .’ With a grimace, he turned his head to the side. Kagome was curled up beside him, her head cheek smashed against his shoulder. He smiled despite the pain in his body.

Carefully, he forced himself to roll to the side, trying not to disturb Kagome as she slept. His head felt fuzzy and dull. He vaguely remembered Kagome giving him some little white pills. She said they’d ease his pain. His first reaction was to tell her that he didn’t want or need them, but he had taken them because she looked so anxious . . .

He sniffed then wrinkled his nose. The smell of those pills still filled his nostrils. He made a face and sighed.

Pushing himself up on his elbow, he stared at Kagome. Dark smudges under her eyes marred the skin on her face, and he winced, knowing that it was because of him that those were there. She worried too much. She always forgot that it wasn’t so easy to kill a hanyou. ‘ _Stubborn wench . . . why does just looking at her make my heart ache?_ ’

She frowned slightly, as though her dreams disturbed her. He reached out and lightly smoothed her brow, dissipating the tiny lines that marked her upset. She sighed softly.

She moved in her sleep, and he gazed downward then scowled. She wore the same snowy white sweater she had been wearing all day, but he white was marred with . . . he narrowed his eyes. Dried blood? Before he gave it a second thought, he sat up and gently pushed up her sweater. Her flesh was warm, pulsing under his hand. She shifted slightly. The uncoiling of the muscles under her skin shot straight through him, and despite the hazy state of his mind, he couldn’t help the sudden rush of fire that coursed through his veins.

‘ _Baka! Did you forget that she’s got blood on her?_ ’ He winced at his own reminder and drew a deep breath before daring to look at her again. ‘ _Nothing . . .?_ ’ Ignoring the pain in his stomach, he leaned over, sniffing the stain.   Though the scent that came to him was dulled by those damned white pills, he recognized the smell. He snorted as he sat back up and let her sweater drop back in place. It was his blood . . . ‘ _That’s the last time I take any white pills_ ,’ he assured himself as he laid back down.

Kagome yawned and slowly opened her eyes. When she noticed that he was awake, she leaned up on her elbow, the relief obvious in her timid smile. “How are you feeling?”

He didn’t answer. Instead he tucked his chin down against his chest and pushed his head closer to her. She giggled softly and rubbed his ears. He grimaced as a dull pain twisted his stomach. Kagome noticed and frowned. “Why don’t you lie on your back? That can’t be comfortable.”

He rolled onto his back and sighed. “More.”

Kagome shook her head slowly but leaned over him to rub his ears.

‘ _All right . . . bad idea_ ,’ InuYasha realized as Kagome’s body pressed against him. ‘ _Baka! This is gonna kill me_. . .’ He whined. “Kagome?”

“Mmm?”

“K-Kagome?”

She dragged her gaze off his ears, questions in her eyes as they locked with his. Deliberately shoving away the doubts, the worries, he caught her, leaned up as he pulled her down. The instant explosion as their lips touched forced a growl from deep inside him. Her fingers sank into his hair as the flood of her light illuminated the darkest corners of his heart. In those secret places where he tried to conceal himself, she was merciless, drawing him out of hiding, leaving him vulnerable yet protected. Long after he thought that the beautiful things were gone from his life, she had come to him, and as her lips yielded on his, giving him everything she had to give . . . was it wrong for him to want a little more?

Kagome sighed against his mouth, accepted him on his own terms. She took what he offered and gave it back to him. A rare and delicate thing, unafraid when she should fear, more concerned with giving than taking, InuYasha let her humble him in this, let her have what she needed from him. Her lips opened to him, shocking heat from her mouth scorched him. He tasted her, reveled in her, lost himself in her. Time gave way to pure sensation; thought gave way to his need to shelter her. His hands cupped her face, traced the delicate curves of her skin. Softer than anything he’d ever felt before, her hair fell over him, wrapped around him, surrounded him in everything that was Kagome.

She shifted slightly, brushing against the bandages on his chest. He tore his mouth away as he gasped, white-hot pain instantly drawing him rudely back to his senses. “I’m sorry!” Kagome said quickly, obviously snapped out of her bemusement by the same thing that he had been victim of. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m—”

He forced a weak laugh as the edges of pain subsided. “I’ll live, wench.”

She sat up and gently pulled the tape on the bandages to check his wounds. He didn’t miss her wince as she took in the sight of his rent flesh. She let the bandage fall and crawled off the end of the bed. “Let me change that,” she offered.

He sighed. He hated how she constantly fretted over him. It made him feel weak when she did that. He made a face. ‘ _Liar. You love how she worries over you. No one’s done that, not since Mother_ . . .’

He allowed himself a small grin. ‘ _All right_ ,’ he reluctantly agreed. ‘ _So I do like it . . . a little_ . . .’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Mononoke_** _: creature spirit_.
> 
>  _To date, InuYasha’s father has no real name. His ‘title’ was Inu no Taisho, so for this reason, most entries in Izayoi’s diary will not call him by any name whatsoever_!


	31. Battle of Wills

“No.”

“But—”

“No.”

“Stop—”

“No!”

“Damn—”

“Cussing isn’t going to change ‘no’ to ‘yes’.”

“Keh!”

She lifted the spoon to his lips. He pressed his lips together and turned his head to the side. “Now come on, eat.”

“Bring me food, and I’ll eat it.”

“You’ve got a huge hole in your stomach. Until that heals, I want you to eat the broth.”

“ _No_.”

“InuYasha—”

“ _Fuck_ no.”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome set the cup of broth aside and reached for the bandages on his stomach. “Let me check.”

He pushed her hands away. “No.”

“Stop pouting, and let me look.”

“Keh! No, thank you, and I don’t pout.”

Kagome was inclined to disagree. Just because he woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, he thought he was healed. When he announced that they were leaving to go hunt down Waku, Kagome had resorted to threatening him with ‘the word’ if he didn’t lay back down and behave. She made a face. ‘ _Okay, so the threat worked. What happens when he figures it that it was only a threat? I wouldn’t have done that to him, not while he’s this badly hurt_.’

“All right, Mr. I-Don’t-Pout,” she remarked as she stood up and set his mother’s diary in his lap. “I’m going to go make sure your clothes are clean. Take a nap if you don’t want to eat.”

“Oi, wench! Didn’t you hear me? I’ll eat when you bring me real food!”

Kagome wiggled her fingers over her shoulder as she left the room. InuYasha growled.

“ _Take a nap_ ,’ she says,” he mimicked in a high pitched voice as he slowly sat up. “I don’t _need_ a nap,” he grumbled as he spotted Kagome’s backpack on the floor. “What I need is food . . . _real_ food . . . Ramen . . .”

‘ _Wait . . . she always has ramen in that monstrosity over there_ . . .’ Setting the diary on the nightstand, he stared at the still-steaming cup of broth. ‘ _Keh! There’s nothing in there! It’s just water that smells like there should be something in there . . . sneaky wench_ . . .’ A sudden thought occurred to him, and he swung his legs off the bed.

He winced as he carefully crossed the floor to retrieve Kagome’s backpack. After a quick peek into the hallway to make sure he wasn’t about to get caught, InuYasha dug through the bag to find the cup of ramen—his salvation.

Without a second thought, he tore the plastic wrap off the cup and dumped the deceptive water over the noodles and sank back on the bed to wait the three minutes for the ramen to be done with a self-satisfied grin. ‘ _I’ll show her . . . heh! InuYasha—one . . . sneaky wench—zero_.’

‘ _All right . . . next time, don’t use sneaky wench’s broth for the ramen_ ,’ he thought with a scowl as he started to eat his acquired food. He coughed a little which brought on a groan as a dull ache reverberated through his stomach. After it subsided, he returned to his food as Kagome breezed back into her room.

He didn’t try to hide the ramen even though the idea did cross his mind. She stared at him in open-mouthed shock before her expression darkened and she stomped over to the bed and reached for the cup. He pulled is away and growled at her. “Hunt your own food, sneaky wench! This one is mine!”

“InuYasha! You can’t have that yet! Give it!”

He growled again. “Uh-uh.”

“If you growl at me, I’ll find a rolled-up newspaper, see if I don’t,” she remarked though her eyes were sparkling as if she were trying not to smile. “And what do you mean, ‘sneaky wench’? I didn’t _sneak_ anything.”

The look he shot her said otherwise as he continued to eat his ramen. “There was nothing in that! Just water,” he complained. “This measly scratch ain’t going to kill me, but depriving me of food might.” His gaze narrowed on her as the cup lowered. “Or is that your plan? You’re even sneakier than I thought!”

She managed to snatch the cup away from his slack hand and made a face as she stared at the overly-thick broth in the bottom. “You’re going to get sick, I know it,” she remarked as she set the cup on her desk. “I can’t _believe_ you did that.”

“I don’t get sick,” he countered with a marked snort. He let her change his bandages without complaint and instead let himself stare at her as she carefully cleaned his stomach and reapplied the ointment that she insisted would keep him from scarring before she put on a fresh bandage. ‘ _Keh!_ ’ he thought with a hint of smugness on his features, ‘ _I don’t scar, anyway_.’ Remembering his ears, he snorted. ‘ _At least, I haven’t for a very long time_.’

Kagome carefully kept her gaze averted while she finished taping the bandages into place. “Are you going to read it?”

He made a face as his eyes sought out his mother’s diary. “Read what?”

“Your mother’s diary. You know what I meant.”

He didn’t disagree with her. “I’m still reading yours.”

She sighed. “Your mother wrote it for you,” she said gently. “She wrote the things she wanted to tell you but never got a chance to say. I think . . . I wish you would.”

Ears drooping slightly as painful visions of his mother flashed through his head, InuYasha didn’t answer. ‘ _She died so long ago, and all I remember . . . I remember hearing her cry, and I remember . . . she always looked so sad_ . . .’

“She really loved you, did you know? Will you just think about it?”

He swallowed hard and finally nodded. “I’ll _think_ about it,” he remarked. “I’ll also _think_ about how much my ears need scratched.”

She rolled her eyes but climbed over his legs to sit beside him. She reached for his ears before he ducked away. The look he sent her told her that she ought to have known what he wanted. “What?”

“Diary?”

She blinked then smiled. “It’s right there, beside you.”

He glanced over before shifting his gaze back to hers. “Yours, sneaky wench, _yours_.”

Kagome laughed but retrieved the diary from her bag for him.

He scooted down to rest his head in her lap as he cracked open the book. Kagome’s fingers rubbed his ears, and he sighed, almost forgetting the book in his hands as the soothing motion of her fingers lulled him. “Did they put something on your ears to make them addictive?” she asked as she idly ran a finger up and down the back of his ear.

“Nope.”

‘ _Addictive? Huh?_ ’

“No? Hmm . . . good. Bad enough, as it is.”

“Bad? How?”

She giggled. “Aren’t you going to read?”

“I was going to. Don’t rush me.”

‘ _InuYasha was still injured from his run-in with Juroumaru and Kageroumaru, Naraku’s latest incarnations. Of course, he was a little irritated with me because I thanked Kouga for helping us. I guess I can see InuYasha’s point. He doesn’t like it when I say ‘the word’ to him, especially in front of Kouga. Still, if InuYasha would just behave himself, I wouldn’t have to do that, right?_ ’

He moved the diary aside to glare up at Kagome. “I think you _like_ to say that word to me,” he complained, waving the diary under her nose. “I think you just used that mangy wolf as an excuse to say it. Sneaky wench.”

She tugged gently on his ear. “Take that back!”

“Take what back?”

With a soft giggle, she gave another little tug. “That I like saying ‘it’ to you, because I don’t.”

“Keh. For not liking ‘it’ you say ‘it’ enough.”

“What am I supposed to do? You’re bigger and stronger than me, and you don’t often listen to me, either,” she grumbled. “Besides, I don’t care how much you complain. You can’t tell me that my saying ‘it’ hurts when you’re too stubborn to admit that you’re hurting now.”

His scowl darkened and he turned his attention back to the diary since he really couldn’t argue that with her since it was true.

‘ _I overslept. I was going to come home, grab some supplies, and go right back. I know that the others are anxious to get moving to find more Shikon no Kakera, but I laid down after my bath, and I must have been a little more tired than I had thought because it was dark when I woke up. I remember thinking, as I shoved things into my bag and darted out of the house, that InuYasha had probably had enough time to himself to calm down. When I came out of the well, though, he wasn’t there. All these dancing blue lights shined overhead, over the forest, and I followed them. I’m still not sure why. I almost wish I hadn’t_.

‘ _I found Kikyou and InuYasha nearby. I’m not sure what I’ve been thinking. He hugged her, told her that he wanted to protect her. After all that, Kikyou pulled a knife on him. As she left him, he screamed after her, and I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to watch. I didn’t want to see_ any _of it. Yet I couldn’t look away; I couldn’t run. I tried to step away before he could see me, before he caught me. I stepped on a branch, and of course he heard that. I think that’s when I realized that his head was so full of Kikyou, he hadn’t known I was even there_.

‘ _He stared at me for so long, and I know what he wanted to say . . . it was written in his eyes, and he didn’t have to say the words for me to know. It had always been Kikyou. It was still Kikyou. I was just . . . I don’t know what. Instead of waiting to hear him say it, I ran. He didn’t call out for me, like he had for Kikyou. Maybe that’s what hurts the most_.’

InuYasha closed his eyes for a moment, indecision gnawing at him. Something compelled him to keep reading, but this was the most personal of her diary entries he’d read so far. He wanted to know but dreaded it, too. He remembered all of it well enough. He opened his eyes and peeked at the page. Had she condemned him or hated him? But no, she had come back, hadn’t she? She was the one that had asked him if she could stay . . .

‘ _Read it, baka, and if you don’t like it, it’s no more than you deserve_.’ He wished that weren’t true but he knew that it was.

‘ _I thought about it, after I went back home. I thought about the three of us, or rather, about InuYasha and Kikyou, about their bond, and about their lives. I don’t really fit in there, do I? I don’t belong with InuYasha. He’s made it clear many, many times that I’m only here to find the jewel shards. Still_ . . .

‘ _Here’s what I know: people say things happen by chance, that you meet someone by chance. I talked to Mama, I stared at Goshinboku—the place where we’d first met, and the things she said . . . I don’t believe in chance. I think I was meant to go through the well. I think I was meant to meet InuYasha. Maybe I could say that I wished Kikyou really was gone. I wish I could say that InuYasha means nothing to me. I wish I could say that I don’t care about Sango, Miroku or Shippou and Kaede . . . I wish I could say that I regretted being born with the Shikon no Tama in my body. Then it’d be easy, to say I never wanted to go back through the well again_.

‘ _But as much as I would like these things to be true, they’re not, and I know in my heart that I love them all. And InuYasha. I guess that was the biggest part of my realizations. I love him. I can’t regret anything, because being with him, being near him, being close to him makes me happy, and even if he never loves me the way I love him, I think that is enough. I only wish that it didn’t hurt quite so much, but maybe that’s how I know that I do love him, after all_.’

InuYasha’s mind slowed to a crawl. His chest constricted, he couldn’t breathe. Guilt mixed with wonder, and the combination of the two made him feel light-headed. Confusion tore at him. Feeling like the biggest baka ever while he stared at the tear-stained page, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with what Kagome had written . . . Did she still feel that way? After everything he’d put her through, could she still love him?

Willing away the image of the pages of her diary, marked in her handwriting, ink smudged with her tears, somehow nothing he could say would erase the quiet sadness of her words, the pain that nagged at his heart. He had thought that his decision had been right, at the time. He had believed that he owed Kikyou because he hadn’t died. Even if that were true, in all the mess, Kagome had somehow been forgotten. He never meant to make her feel that way. He never wanted to her to feel second best, but that was exactly what had happened, time and again.

He closed the diary and set it on the nightstand, beside his mother’s book before pushing himself up with a slight grimace. Kagome’s hands fell away and she waited patiently for him to say whatever was on his mind.

“Would it . . . mean anything to you if I said I never meant to make you cry?” he asked, his voice little more than a whisper, as he glared at her desk.

She sighed. “Would it mean anything to you if I said I’ve never held anything against you?”

His ears flattened as his gaze fell to the floor, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“You can’t help how you feel, InuYasha. I never expected you to.” When he didn’t reply, she reached over him and dragged her diary off the nightstand to see what entry he’d read.

She didn’t say anything though she did close the book and dropped it on the bedspread. He dared a secretive glance at her and frowned when he saw that she was staring down at her hands again, though her cheeks were tinged with pink, and she was gnawing on her lower lip.

“Kagome?”

Her cheeks reddened a little more as she suddenly scooted off the bed and, muttering something about checking the laundry, InuYasha blinked in surprise as Kagome, the girl who had stared down Naraku without flinching, the girl who approached him while he was transformed by his youkai blood without fear, the girl who had stood toe-to-toe with Sesshoumaru the first time she’d met him and had the gall to yell in his face, ran out of the room as though she couldn’t face him at all, and all over an entry in her diary.

 

 

 

 

 


	32. Fearless

' _How could I have forgotten that I'd written . . . that?_ ' Kagome railed at herself as she dragged the broom over the bathroom floor. She squatted down to sweep the dirt into the dustpan, deliberately trying to sidetrack her overzealous mind. It didn't work. With a soft moan, Kagome sank to the floor, leaning against the wooden cabinets for support. ` _I can't_ believe _I forgot about that! Now he knows everything, and_ _. . ._ '

` _Would it . . . mean anything to you if I said I never meant to make you cry?_ '

But it did matter. Sure, she had told herself that he hadn't tried to upset her, that he hadn't realized how she felt at the time. Still, having him say as much was comforting—too comforting . . .

The small voice in the back of her mind whispered to her. ` _And maybe he feels the same way?'_

She shook her head slowly. ` _If he felt the same way, wouldn't I know? I mean, everyone says he does. Sango and Miroku and even Shippou have told me this, but . . . it just isn't the same_ _. . ._ '

Then to make all that worse, she'd run away. With a frown, she realized she had done the very thing that she always thought he did. When the questions became more personal, he always walked away. It was true, she supposed as she made a face. At least now she understood why he did it. It was easier to walk—or run—away than it was to stand and talk it out.

Over the nearly three years since she'd fallen into the well on her fifteenth birthday, she had grown a lot, matured in ways that had more to do with her mind than it did her body, but in some ways, she was very much still that same young girl who'd found the hanyou pinned to Goshinboku.

' _You love him. You know you do. He's the one you rely on. He may not be a poet, and he may be clumsy talking about how he feels but you love him because of all that. Maybe in his own way . . . maybe he does tell you every single day, how_ _he feels, and let's face it: i_ _f he had said that he loved you, that would have freaked you out worse, wouldn't it?_ '

True as that may be, the lingering doubt remained.

` _How can you doubt him? He kissed you, for the love of heaven! You were there, baka!_ '

She scowled. She could discount the first kiss, in the cave when she'd practically thrown herself at him, but last night? He'd instigated that one . . . ` _He was in pain though . . . what if he hadn't r_ _ealized what he was doing . . ._ _?_ '

Kagome made a face and pushed herself to her feet again. He knew what he was doing. Pained, maybe, but he knew what he was doing . . .

Still, no matter what her brain told her, she couldn't quite bring herself to face him, not yet. Every time she so much as thought about her diary, she ended up blushing furiously at what he'd so obviously read. It wasn't that she didn't trust him with her diary. She trusted him, maybe more than she trusted herself. She just hadn't realized how embarrassed she would be, now that he had to know the truth of her feelings.

What if she was wrong? What if everyone had mistook InuYasha's actions toward her? What if he really didn't care about her like that? Sure, he had kissed her . . . but what did it mean? She knew what it meant to her, but to him? She sighed. The only person who could answer that was InuYasha, and she'd bite off her tongue before she asked him _that_.

Mrs. Higurashi bustled into the bathroom to put away some clean towels. She stopped short at the look on her daughter's face. Taking a moment to figure out the right thing to say before she spoke, Mrs. Higurashi slowly approached her. “Ah, Kagome . . . I just looked in on InuYasha. He seemed pretty lost in thought. For that matter, so do you.”

Kagome stared at her mother with a thoughtful frown. She opened her mouth to tell her mother then closed it with a slow shake of her head. “I think I might have screwed up, Mama,” she said in a tiny voice.

Mrs. Higurashi set the stack of towels aside and squeezed Kagome's shoulders. “We all feel like that, sometimes, dear. It's a part of life. The question is: can you fix it?”

“I hope so.” She stared at their reflections in the mirror and smiled slightly. “I . . . I got embarrassed and a little . . . scared . . . and I ran away,” she admitted.

Mrs. Higurashi laughed gently and squeezed Kagome's shoulders again. “It happens to the best of us, Kagome. I'm sure InuYasha will understand. He's got a good heart, even when he tries to hide it.”

She'd thought the same things before. InuYasha tried hard to hide it. Deep down, Kagome knew that he really wasn't as tough as he wanted everyone to think he was, and her mother saw it, too. Kagome's smile widened and she hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mama.”

“Any time, dear,” Mrs. Higurashi said as she kissed Kagome's forehead. “Maybe you ought to make sure his bandage doesn't need changed?”

Drawing a deep breath, Kagome headed out of the bathroom and toward the stairs.

He was lying on her bed, curled on his side facing away from her. She thought that he might be sleeping, and she turned to leave him alone. His soft moan stopped her. “InuYasha? Are you hurting again? I'll get you some Tylenol.”

“White pills?” he asked as he slowly turned over. “No.”

Something wasn't right, she decided as she stared at him. Sure his stomach might be bothering him. Normally though, he'd just act like it was nothing. He looked . . . nauseous? Grabbing the small trashcan beside her desk, she stepped closer to the bed.

“It was that ramen, wasn't it? I told you not to eat it,” she remarked as she sank down on the side of the bed and gently pushed his bangs out of his face.

“Sneaky wench . . . you don't have a compassionate bone in your body, you know that?”

She giggled at his pouting tone. “I have compassion . . . just none when you should have known better.”

He groaned as a little more color leeched out of his skin, and she relented. “Let me go get you something to settle your stomach, okay?”

“No pills.”

“No pills,” she agreed. “And if you have to throw up, use the can, okay?”

Making a face at her sensibilities while he was so obviously suffering, InuYasha closed his eyes as she hurried from the room. ` _Not enough that my stomach already feels like hell . . . it really feels like it's being rolled over and over and over and over_ _. . ._ '

“Here,” Kagome said as she hurried back into the room. She sat a bottle of water on the nightstand and grimaced as she opened a package of crackers. “Eat these and drink that.”

He managed to get his eyes open long enough to shoot Kagome an incredulous stare. “Are you fucking nuts? You really think I'm going to eat another damn thing?”

Kagome sighed and forced a cracker into his mouth. “Chew it,” she ordered. “It's not my fault you ate all that uber-broth with the ramen you weren't supposed to have.”

“Iff ivvnt onna elff,” he mumbled around the cracker just before he started to chew.

“It will, too, help,” she countered. “Eat a few crackers, and drink some water, and you'll be fine.”

He forced himself to swallow the cracker but jerked his head to the side when Kagome tried to shove another one into his mouth. “How do you know this will work?” he demanded.

To his surprise, Kagome flushed but smiled. “Mama used to buy bullion cubes—little blocks that dissolve in water to make chicken broth—and I liked them. I ate five of them once. Worst stomachache, ever, and this is what Mama gave me then.”

“Keh,” he replied but let her give him another cracker.

By the time the package of crackers was gone and the water bottle emptied, InuYasha had to admit—however grudgingly—that he did feel a lot better.

Kagome dropped the empty plastic wrapper into the trash can and set it back beside the desk. She sat back down and sighed. InuYasha sat up and patiently waited while she removed the bandage to survey the wound. “It's not healing very quickly,” she said with a concerned frown.

“Don't surprise me. Waku was trying to gut me, if you didn't notice. He didn't have any interest in making sure that the wounds were neat and tidy.”

She cleaned and redressed his stomach carefully. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as it had the night before. At least he could be grateful for that.

Kagome put away her first aid kit and wandered to her window to stare at the deepening shadows as evening fell. “I'm sorry I ran off earlier,” she said softly. “I was a little embarrassed . . .” She laughed softly and shook her head. “Okay, a _lot_ embarrassed.”

He felt the pulse-beats engulf him, felt the transformation coming. Bracing himself for the unsettling changes in his body, it took him a minute before he could ask her, “Why?”

She glanced over at him then back at the window only to let her gaze flash right back to him again. “The new moon . . . I forgot . . .”

He waved his hand as though to shoo away her concern even as his human body weakened by the second. Normally not affected quite so drastically, he was pretty sure that the hole in his stomach had a lot to do with the waves of drowsiness that washed over him. “Why were you embarrassed?” he asked again, struggling to keep his eyes open.

She came to him, laying her cool palm against his forehead. Satisfied that he wasn't feverish, she sat down carefully and sighed. “I forgot I wrote all that, for one,” she admitted. “I was afraid, I guess . . .”

“Afraid? You're never afraid,” he mumbled as his eyes closed again. He had to say it, before he fell asleep. He wanted to say it. “You're . . . fearless . . . always fearless . . . more fearless than I could ever be . . .”

Her answer came from far away, and he wasn't sure if she really did say it or if it was part of a dream.

“Only when I'm with you . . .”

He smiled as he gave in to sleep.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“You failed me.”

“It wasn't my fault,” Waku rasped out, clutching the stump of his arm the miko's arrow had left behind.

“You underestimated her, didn't you? I told you, she must die first. If you destroy her, you'll destroy them all.”

Waku grimaced. “I nearly killed the hanyou. Who knows? He could still die from his wounds.”

Norimitsu leveled a cold glare at the hawk youkai. “Nearly killed him is not enough. Could still die is not enough. I want the sons of the Inu no Taisho dead—and I want the hanyou's bitch dead, too.”

“You sound frightened of this miko.”

Amber eyes narrowed dangerously on the hawk youkai. “It would be so easy to kill you, Waku . . . do not forget this.”

Waku shook his head slowly. “Then you'd have to do your own dirty work. Why the miko?”

Norimitsu squared his shoulders, staring into the moonless sky. “She is powerful . . . perhaps more powerful than the brothers of the Fang, and if you destroy her, you will bring down the hanyou, as well.”

Waku nodded, digesting the information in silence before answering. “It will be done.”

Norimitsu's eyebrows lifted in silent challenge. “And you are certain you can do this? Should you fail me again, Waku . . .”

“Why do you wish them dead?”

“I have my reasons,” he growled, his amber eyes flashing red fire before returning to their normal glacial stare. “Do not fail me again.”

Waku watched the old inu-youkai as he transformed into a red flash of light and disappeared into the night sky.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

` _I couldn't stop thinking about him. Every time I went into the forest, I caught myself looking for him. My father had accepted the offer of one of his vassals, and I was to be his wife. Takemaru was a fierce samurai known throughout Musashi as one of the greatest youkai hunters in all of Japan. Takemaru said he loved me. He did not know that I didn't possess a heart to offer him. I'd lost it that day in the forest to_ him _—my protector, my guardian, my golden-eyed savior_.

` _I was promised to another yet I yearned for him. I looked for traces of him in the forest. I heard him sing to me in the quiet of my dreams. One night, I awoke, and there he was. Cradled in his arms, against his heart, we sat high in the boughs of Goshinboku, and he sang this song to me_ :

 

 

` _The night wind whispers and makes you smile_ ,  
 _Don't fret, little one, I'll be here all the while_ ,  
 _Sleep, gently sleep, in my heart you belong_ ,  
 _Sleep, gently sleep, I'll protect you with this song_ . . .

` _Child of my heart, child of heaven_ ,  
 _Sent to me and my soul was forgiven_ ,  
 _You give me peace and joy and love_ ,  
 _Sent to me from the stars high above_ . . .

` _Old Goshinboku, the song of the God Tree_ ,  
 _Whispers in the night, you'll come to me_ ,  
 _Be safe in my heart, I'll protect you from ill_ ,  
 _The beautiful maiden, I bend to your will_ _. . ._ '

 

 

Kagome blinked back bittersweet tears. ` _InuYasha's song_ ,' she thought with a sad smile. ` _His mother sang it to him because it meant something to her . . . and he sang it to me_ _. . ._ '

It struck her as ironic, the story of Goshinboku in the song, that InuYasha's father had taken his mother to sit in the tree, too. How often had InuYasha and she sat there, staring at the moon? In that tree, it never seemed like words were necessary. Something about it offered understanding without the need for spoken words.

Sitting on the floor with her back against her bed, Kagome turned and reached back to put her hand against InuYasha's forehead. Still sleeping peacefully, he didn't show any signs of fever or discomfort. She sighed. ` _How could I have forgotten that tonight was the new moon? Poor InuYasha . . . he was in pain as a hanyou, from his injuries. In his human form, it has to be so much worse_ _. . ._ '

He didn't stir. She smiled as she rose up on her knees and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “K'gome,” he mumbled but didn't wake.

With a deep, contented breath, Kagome sank back down and found her place in the old diary.

` _He stared at me as though he was shocked that I had awakened. He asked me why I wasn't afraid. There was nothing to be afraid of. So long as he held me, I would fear nothing. I asked him why he had come to me. He said that he came every night, but his voice was tinged with a hint of sadness, of wistfulness that hurt me. He said that it was impossible, that it could never be. He told me again that mortals and youkai weren't meant to be together, and I knew this was true. Still the call of his soul to mine was too strong, transcending everything that was true and familiar. He spirited me through the forest back to the safety of the castle, and before he left me, he said he would be back again after the shadows fell, under cover of the gentle darkness_.'

“K'gome?” Closing the diary and setting it aside, Kagome turned. InuYasha blinked sleepily, eyelids still heavy as he finally turned his gaze on her. She smiled when he yawned. “How long was I asleep?”

“A couple of hours,” she answered as she got up and checked his bandage. He hissed as the tape pulled against his flesh. “Sorry!”

He shook his head. “S'okay.”

She worked as quickly as she could, changing his bandage. With a wince, Kagome cleaned the wounds. ` _They look worse_ ,' she fretted, ` _because he's human? Are they worse or is it just because I know he's not as physically strong in this form?_ ' She tried to be gentle. By the time she was finished, she was near tears. He had tried not to make a sound but she knew how much it hurt him. “I'm so sorry,” she apologized as she put the first aid kit back on her desk.

“Keh. It's nothing,” he lied. “Didn't hurt at all.”

She sighed. “I know it does,” she said softly. “Are you thirsty? Do you need anything?”

He shook his head again. “Just . . . will you lay down with me? For a little while?”

Kagome stepped to the end of the bed to crawl up and stretch out beside him. He closed his eyes and his troubled frown faded as though her proximity was enough to comfort him. She reached out, gently brushing his bangs off his forehead as he rolled onto his side. Her heart welled in her chest, filling with a flood of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. ` _Let me protect you, InuYasha . . . just for tonight._ '

“Were you reading Mother's diary?”

She blinked in surprise. She thought he had gone back to sleep. “Yeah.”

He opened his eyes slowly, staring at her with those intense dark eyes that she didn't often see but that she knew just the same. “You'll tell me, right? If there's anything I need to know?”

“I wish you'd read it, too,” she said. “It was written for you.”

He sighed. “Someday . . . maybe.”

“What are you afraid of?”

He stared at her for long moments, reaching out slowly, touching her cheek with his human hand. Tracing her jaw, cradling her face, he shook his head slightly. “I don't know.” Swallowing hard, he let his hand fall away. She caught it in hers, held it tight. “Someone didn't want me to have that diary,” he remarked. “I'm not sure I want to know why.”

“That song you sang to me . . . your mother sang it to you?”

He nodded.

“Did you know, your father sang it to her?”

InuYasha's frown darkened. “I didn't know that. She never said. I just remember that when she sang it, she smiled . . .”

Kagome smiled vaguely. “She wrote that he used to come to her in the night and sing that song to her while she slept. He used to take her to sit in Goshinboku, and he sang that song to her.”

He absorbed that in silence. With a sigh and a quick squeeze of her hands, he finally spoke again. “They say when a youkai dies that part of its soul is kept alive and that it is absorbed by the living things without souls of their own. I wondered before, why it was that I always felt familiar with Goshinboku. Maybe . . . maybe that's where he is.”

Kagome let go of his hand and propped herself on her elbow, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. He turned his head, capturing her lips with his as his hand rose to hold her still. Warmth unfurled inside her, the spiral of emotion that ebbed and flowed as she reached out to hold him. As though it was the most natural thing, Kagome didn't question the reason behind his kiss. Hesitant yet demanding, his lips drew on her soul, taking a part of her into himself and yet giving her a part of him, too.

She touched his face, cradled his cheeks, ran her fingers over him as innocence gave way to emotion. He moaned softly against her as his fingers tangled in her hair. A current of desire shot through her as her lips opened to him. She gasped as he held her still, as he tasted her. The swirling tide, the wash of heat as emotion became a palpable thing was enough for the moment, enough for her.

He leaned over her, and she fell against the bed, surrendering to him before she ever thought to resist. She felt his body stiffen, vaguely realized it was the pain of his injury. He didn't stop kissing her, and she couldn't think long enough to worry about the wounds. Her hands dropped to his shoulders, and she clung to him, braced herself against him, riding out the waves of raw energy that radiated from him to her and back again.

He pulled back from her, stared at her with a fierceness in his gaze, a fire behind his eyes, a confusion that tore her soul. She leaned up once more, kissed him gently, tenderly before she looked at him again. This time, he smiled. Rubbing his cheek against hers, he shifted with a groan as his body protested more movement before he collapsed in her arms, his nose buried in the crook of her neck.

Careful not to disturb his wounds, she contented herself with smoothing back his hair, caressing his cheek with her fingers as he snuggled closer against her. His arms encircled her, locking her in the tight grasp of his embrace as she felt the tension ease out of him. He fell asleep like that, and just before she followed him, she smiled. He didn't make that rumbling sound in his human form . . . but he did snore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **Norimitsu** : "rule, law”


	33. Pact

“Why did you seek me out?”

Katosan inclined his head in deference to the youkai lord. “Sesshoumaru-sama . . . I wasn't certain you would come.”

“Forego the pleasantries, Katosan. What is it you wish?”

“It is about your brother.”

“My brother?” Sesshoumaru echoed, his gaze wandering over the horizon and the rising sun. “And why would anything to do with that miserable half-breed be of interest to me?”

“You don't know?” Katosan countered, eyebrows raised in articulated surprise. “InuYasha is heir to Musashi. By his human blood he is the true daimyo, and by his youkai blood, he has the strength to take it back.”

Sesshoumaru glanced at Katosan out of the corner of his eye but gave away nothing in his expression. “Irrelevant. InuYasha possesses no such desire to rule over Musashi. His interests lie elsewhere . . . in a human, no less.”

Katosan nodded slowly. “I have noticed this as well. She holds power over him by his own choice. If she were removed . . .?”

Sesshoumaru chuckled; a sound devoid of humor, as dry as the winter wind. “Harm the miko, Katosan, and InuYasha will cut you down. Do not underestimate his power. Diluted and tainted as it may be, the blood of my father also runs through his veins. Many have made the mistake of miscalculating InuYasha's will and have suffered for it. He bears feelings for this miko. You cannot harm her.”

“Perhaps not . . . but perhaps his feelings for her could be . . . exploited?”

Sesshoumaru didn't answer right away, taking his time instead to eye the youkai speculatively. “Tell me, Katosan . . . what interest do you have in this?”

Katosan stared over the lands, his gaze intent as he surveyed the surrounding wood. “Do you remember, Sesshoumaru-sama, when your father ruled? He held Musashi. No one dared to question his authority. It was Izayoi who broke him. Because of her—because he wanted her—you know what happened. Surely I need not remind you. Tell me you do not wish to have what should have been yours from the start become yours once more?”

“Musashi means nothing to This Sesshoumaru.”

“Doesn't it?”

“Should it?”

“If your brother were to claim what should be his, it would come to you in the event of an untimely death.”

Sesshoumaru nodded once then deliberately turned his back on the older inu-youkai. “And that would be a moot point should InuYasha produce an heir.”

“And we are back to the miko again?'

Sesshoumaru stared at his empty sleeve. The missing appendage was more of an annoyance than a hindrance. Still, it attested to his brother's insatiable desire to protect the lowly humans of the earth . . . “Mark me, Katosan. InuYasha protects her fiercely. Destroying her may not be as simple as you might believe. She is no ordinary mortal. She is a miko—a powerful one. You have been warned.”

“You would not fault me for trying, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

“Do you think you can?” Sesshoumaru countered. “The blood of the tainted cannot be further tainted. Feel free to pursue this, but I warn you, you do so at your own peril.”

“Do you fear your hanyou brother?”

Sesshoumaru's gaze narrowed, his eyes sparking with angry fire though the rest of his expression remained impassive. “This Sesshoumaru fears no one, especially not that worthless half-breed.”

Katosan nodded. “Then I take my leave. I'll keep in contact.”

Sesshoumaru watched as Katosan disappeared into the forest. ` _A fool's venture_ ,' he thought as he dismissed it from his mind. ` _I shall not aide you, Katosan. You are no more than an old dreamer. However, I shall not hinder you, either_ . . .'

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“It's looking a little better,” Kagome said as she taped fresh bandages over InuYasha's wounds. “A week, and—”

InuYasha choked on the bite of ramen he'd been chewing. “Week?” he sputtered. “I'm not lying in that bed for a week.”

“You don't have to lie in bed, InuYasha, but you do need to make sure that you take it easy until it's healed. A week ought to do it.”

“No.”

“If you're not careful, you'll reopen those wounds, and then you'll be in serious trouble,” she argued.

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! I'm fine, I told you! Besides that, if we don't go back soon, that damn monk's never going to let me live it down.”

Kagome stood back, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared incredulously at the stubborn hanyou. “You're not putting yourself in danger because you're afraid Miroku would tease you!” she insisted.

“I ain't afraid of anything, wench! I _know_ he'd tease me! Anyway, it was just slower healing because of the new moon. Now that it's over, I'll be better by tomorrow morning—just hide and watch.”

Kagome rolled her eyes then covered her mouth as she stifled a yawn. “Think so, do you?”

He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest, too. “Keh! I know so.”

She had an excellent retort formed. It didn't come, though. She yawned again, and InuYasha stopped grumbling to stare at her. “Why are you so tired?” She waved her hand to hush him. It didn't work. “You've been doing that all morning. Tell me.”

Kagome wiped the yawn-induced moisture from her eyes and blinked. “It's nothing,” she assured him. “Don't worry.”

“Wench—”

“All right,” she admitted, “I'm a little sleepy.”

“Why?”

“No reason,” she said but didn't argue as he grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the bed. He let go of her hand and gestured for her to lie down. She crawled onto the bed agreeably enough and flopped backward on the freshly washed comforter. “You should take a nap, too,” she mumbled as she tucked her hands under her cheek and closed her eyes.

Sitting carefully on the edge of the bed, InuYasha stared at her thoughtfully. “I'll lay down with you if you tell me why you're so tired.”

She smiled. “You snore.”

“What?”

“You snore . . . in human form . . . didn't mind it . . .” she mumbled.

“I do _not_ snore,” he insisted. Kagome was already asleep. He traced her jaw with the tip of his claw, smiling gently as he remembered the absolute peace that had sustained him through the night and had filled his soul when he woke this morning only to find her wrapped against his side. The ache in his stomach hadn't even bothered him. Sometime in the night, he'd rolled onto his back, and either Kagome had snuggled up against him or he had pulled her into his arms because she was nestled comfortably in the crook of his shoulder.

He wasn't tired, but unfortunately he had given his word that he would lay down with her. He swung his legs up on the bed with a wince that he was grateful that Kagome couldn't see as he wrapped an arm over his still-aching stomach to hold it as he stretched out. He grabbed Kagome's diary off the nightstand and stared thoughtfully at the cover. ` _Well, I can't sleep_ ,' he thought with a scowl. ` _It'd be mean to wake her up just to ask her if she cares if I read it_ . . .' He glanced from the diary to the sleeping girl then back again. ` _Yeah, it'd be mean . . . I'm nice, even if_ she _isn't . . . I_ don't _fucking snore!_ '

With a long-suffering sigh, InuYasha opened the diary.

` _We found Kohaku today. He didn't seem to remember a thing about what happened with the rest of the slayers, and he didn't even remember Sango. InuYasha was convinced that Kohaku was faking and still under Naraku's control. I don't think he was, but it turned out that he was still being controlled. It was weird, almost like there was sort of a light switch in his brain, because suddenly the vacant look was back in his eyes, and he came after me_ . . .'

InuYasha closed his eyes against the memory that came back with the diary entry. He, Miroku, and Shippou had stayed behind, thinking that Kagura had come for Kohaku. It wasn't until too late that they realized that it had been an act, and that Kohaku had been sent to kill Kagome. If Kohaku hadn't resisted or if Kagome hadn't been able to get through to him . . . InuYasha shoved the dark thoughts aside as he turned to stare at Kagome's sleeping face.

` _How many times have I nearly lost you? I can't . . . I couldn't . . . Kagome_ . . .'

As if in answer to his silent questions, Kagome shifted closer to him. He smiled and lifted a lock of her hair to his cheek. ` _I've promised it before, but I swear to you now . . . I'll never let anything hurt you again_ . . .'

She smiled in her sleep.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“Sango! Miroku! Hurry!”

Miroku lowered the sickle and chain to his side as Shippou bounded toward them in the field. Unfortunately, Sango had already swung Hiraikotsu, and she yelled, “Watch out!” a moment too late. The monk tried to avoid the weapon a moment too late as the giant boomerang struck him in the shoulder, knocking him flat on his back. He sat up as Sango rushed to his side and dropped to her knees in the snow. “Houshi-sama!” she gasped. “That's it! No arguments! We've got to get you some armor!”

“No complaints,” Miroku agreed, wincing as he tried his best to keep from passing out from the overwhelming pain that ricocheted down his arm and up to his brain.

“You can't let your guard down! What if I had been a youkai? Would you have lowered your weapon then?”

Miroku shook his head, willing back the nausea brought on by the pain in his shoulder. “But you're not, Sango . . . had you been a youkai, I would not have looked at Shippou. Speaking of, where did he go?”

The kitsune leapt and landed on Miroku's shoulder—the same one Sango had nearly cleaved in half. It was too much. Miroku opened his mouth and shrieked a very un-monk-like shriek of agony. Sango hurriedly plucked the kit from Miroku's shoulder and set Shippou on the ground.

“Houshi-sama!”

Miroku gritted his teeth as Sango peeled back his robe to inspect the damage. She sucked in her breath, and he peeked at it and flinched. Already mottled in beautiful shades of black and purple that closely resembled the colors of his robe, his entire shoulder was discolored and rapidly swelling.

“What did you want, Shippou?” Miroku asked to distract himself as Sango poked at his shoulder, making sure that nothing had been broken or displaced.

Shippou popped up, waving his arms in his excitement. “Katosan's here! He said he's found it!”

“Found what?”

“The book InuYasha was looking for! He found it! He says we've got to go with him to get it before it's too late!”

“Maybe you should stay here, houshi-sama? Your shoulder—”

Miroku shook his head and pulled his robe back into place. “—Will be fine. InuYasha has always done his best to help us, injured or not. It's time we repaid the favor.”

Sango looked like she wanted to argue with Miroku. “But—”

Miroku offered her a wan smile as he got up and extended his hand to her. “Besides, I'd never hear the end of it, if they came back, and I was here while you went after this book alone.”

Sango rolled her eyes. Between the monk and the hanyou, she wasn't sure who had the bigger ego. “Kirara!” she called to the fire cat. The youkai transformed into her large form and waited patiently as Sango and Miroku climbed on while Shippou jumped up behind them. Without a word, the four set off for the village.

 

 

:: ** _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_** ::

 

 

“Would it matter if I said that I think this is a really bad idea?”

“Keh.”

“Didn't think so,” Kagome grumbled as InuYasha caught her under the arms and gently pulled her up out of the Bone Eater's Well. “You're not completely healed yet,” she pointed out.

“Stop complaining. I'm fine.”

She glared at him as he yanked the backpack out of her hands. “I'm not complaining! I'm _worrying_ , there's a huge difference!”

He started to form his rebuttal until her words sank in. He stopped suddenly and glanced at her. “You're worried?”

“Yes, baka! What did you think? That I was just saying that to hear myself talk?”

He could feel warmth creeping up his face, and he couldn't help the shy smile that surfaced. “I'm fine,” he assured her softly.

She didn't look like she believed him. An odd look crossed her features, and InuYasha swallowed hard as she leaned in closer to him, up on her toes, closer . . . closer . . .

“Oi! Give that back!” InuYasha growled as Kagome pulled the bag out of his slack hand and took off running. Her laughter drifted back to him on the icy breeze, and he took off like a shot after her. “Sneaky wench!”

Kagome sprinted all the way to Kaede's hut and dropped the bag beside the door as she stepped inside. ` _InuYasha must not be completely healed, as he claims he is_ ,' she realized. ` _Otherwise he would have easily caught me_.'

“Kagome! Ye've returned! Where is InuYasha?” Kaede greeted.

Before Kagome could answer, a very irritated hanyou stomped into the hut. “See how you are, Kagome? Sneaky wench!”

She narrowed her eyes as she stared at his pouting face. “What did you think I was going to do?” she asked, suspicion lighting her gaze.

“I thought—Keh!”

“Hmm.” She shook her head slightly before turning back to face Kaede, who was watching the two of them with avid interest. “Where is everyone?” Kagome asked, trying to sound casual.

“The youkai who calls himself Katosan came yesterday. He said he found the book that ye have been seeking, InuYasha. The others went with him to retrieve it.”

InuYasha frowned then slowly headed for the door. “Coming, sneaky wench?”

She sighed and waved to Kaede before reaching for the bag that InuYasha neatly snatched out of her grasp. “I can get that,” she informed him as she followed him out of the hut.

“Quiet,” he ordered as he knelt down to sniff. “I can't concentrate when you're chattering.” He stood up and nodded toward the west. “This way.” He held his hand out for her. Kagome crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. “What now?”

“You're not healed enough,” she said slowly. “You can't carry me.”

He rolled his eyes. “We ain't got all day, wench! Come on!”

She shook her head slowly. “No, InuYasha!”

He stared incredulously at her. “I told you I'm fine! Would you just get on my back?” Kagome opened her mouth to argue then suddenly laughed. Her giggling escalated, and InuYasha eyed her nervously. “What's so funny?” he finally asked.

She sank down in the snow, laughing so hard that she bent over, her forehead nearly touching her knees. “I don't think . . .” she gasped between giggles, “that I've ever been told . . . to get _on_ someone's back before . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes with a sigh and reached down, grabbing Kagome's hand and dragging her onto his back before setting out at a sprint to find Katosan, the others, and the missing diary.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *


	34. Mai

' _. . . I should have been more frightened.  I should have been really scared.  I'm exhausted now, but I can't sleep.  Tsubaki tried to kill me.  She tried to make me shoot InuYasha.  Naraku thought it would be funny, I guess, to have me do that to InuYasha, just like Kikyou had.  The idea of what would have happened if I hadn't missed with my arrow . . . if I hadn't been able to misdirect it . . . it keeps me awake.  And then InuYasha says to me that I'm in danger because of him?  The irony of that statement astounds me.  If I hurt him—if Naraku ever succeeded in making me hurt InuYasha—I would die . . . ._ '  
  
"Left," InuYasha said without taking his eyes off the diary.  
  
Kagome's hand migrated left, scratching his shoulder blade with skillful precision.  
  
' _He makes me happy.  I love being with him, and I love making him smile.  It doesn't happen nearly often enough.  It makes it that much more special, when he does . . . ._ '  
  
"Kaede said they were going after your mother's diary," Kagome remarked, interrupting the companionable quiet that had fallen as InuYasha read her book.  
  
"Yeah," he agreed, arching his back against her scratching fingers.  ' _Decent nails, for a human_ ,' he thought with an inward grin.  
  
Kagome stopped scratching and stood up, moving off to check their dinner.  "If they're doing that, then why are they headed toward Katosan's castle?"  
  
His gaze narrowed as he stared at her.  "What are you saying?"  
  
She shrugged casually— _too_ casually.  "Nothing . . . it just struck me as a little weird, is all."  
  
She dished up the stew and handed him a bowl with his chopsticks before sitting on her knees with her own bowl.  
  
"What do you mean, weird?" he finally asked when she started picking at her food.  
  
Setting her bowl aside, Kagome leaned over to shift her feet out from under her.  "I don't trust him."  
  
"Keh!  He's fine."  
  
Shaking her head, she stared at the fire, deliberately avoiding his gaze.  "He's got motives you don't know about," she insisted quietly.  "I can feel it."  
  
"You're overreacting."  
  
"It's true!"  
  
He scraped his claws across the packed dirt floor, raking up earth with each movement.  "He served my old man," InuYasha shot back.  "Why do you have a problem with him?"  
  
Kagome sighed.  "It's just something I feel, InuYasha . . . I don't know why, I just do, and—"  
  
"And what?  Someone doesn't act like I'm disgusting or unnatural and suddenly there's something wrong with them?  Because he doesn't treat me like I'm a freak or something you don't like him?"  InuYasha slammed his bowl down and shot to his feet, stomping out of the cave and into the night.  
  
"InuYasha!" she called, darting after him.  "Wait!  I never said that!"  She couldn't see him in the darkness though she had little doubt that he could probably see her, if he was still close.  "InuYasha!"  
  
Rubbing her hands over her arms in the bitter night air, Kagome stared up at the sliver of a crescent moon.  ' _I didn't mean that . . . I didn't . . . did I?  I've never thought any less of him because of what he is_.'  She sighed and hugged herself, tugging the cuffs of her sleeves down over her hands.  ' _Doesn't he know that?  Have I told him enough?  I wouldn't want him to be anything he isn't . . . . But maybe it doesn't matter what I think.  Maybe it matters more, what he thinks . . ._ .'  
  
With a sigh, Kagome hung her head and shuffled back into the cave.  She set the stew to the side of the fire to keep warm on a wide flat rock, emptying both untouched bowls back into the pot and washing them in the small pan of melted-snow water before digging into her backpack to retrieve her calculus book and a notebook.  
  
The scratch of her pencil on the paper blended with the crackling fire as Kagome tried to keep her mind on her work instead of on the hanyou.  ' _You should have been a little more diplomatic with the way you said that, Kagome_ ,' she thought as she erased the math equation she'd been working on all along.  ' _No wonder he thought you were belittling him.  Katosan has always been decent to InuYasha, and then to say that you don't trust him . . . ._ '  Kagome groaned.  ' _Yep, I owe him an apology._ '  
  
She stared at the cave opening.  Something moved just outside.  "InuYasha?"  
  
If it was him, he didn't answer.  Kagome set her book aside and slowly stood as she frowned at the darkness.  ' _That's not InuYasha.  It's wilder, stranger . . ._ .'  
  
Grabbing her bow and arrows, she slowly got to her feet and, nocking back an arrow, she cautiously stepped toward the front of the cave.  Glowing yellow eyes stared at her in the darkness.  Kagome stopped and took aim.  "Who are you?" she asked, careful to keep her tone level, even.  
  
A husky chuckle, a female voice answered.  "You are the miko who possesses the Shikon no Tama, aren't you?  I've come to take it, if you please."  
  
"I don't think so," Kagome remarked, still keeping her arrow trained on the eyes.  "Who are you?"  
  
The yellow eyes came closer.  "Oh, how rude of me!  I'm Mai.  Now that we've met, would you be so kind as to hand it over?"  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
Mai heaved a dramatic sigh as she moved in slowly, closer and closer.  "That wasn't very nice, little girl.  You may be a miko, but you're still a human."  
  
Kagome pulled back on her arrow a little more.  Soft pink light engulfed her and the weapon, illuminating the cave entrance and the youkai.  ' _A cat youkai?  So evidently not all of them look like Kirara . . . ._ '  Steeling her resolve behind a concentrating frown, Kagome closed one eye as she took careful aim.  "I'm warning you!  Leave now or I'll shoot."  
  
Mai stopped, shifting her weight to one of her hips while she carelessly crossed her arms over her chest and smiled pleasantly.  "Come, come, mousy.  Don't you want to play?"  When Kagome didn't answer, Mai shrugged.  "Take her, boys.  Her precious puppy isn't here.  Up for a game of hide and seek?"  
  
Kagome fired her arrow as two dull thumps sounded behind her.  She screamed as two male cat youkai closed in on her even as she reached for another arrow.  Male laughter rang in her ears, and she reacted, using her arrow as a spear, she slammed it down.  One of the male cat youkai howled in pain as the arrow struck true, embedded in his heart.  The splash of blood hit Kagome's hands, her face, her clothes.  The other male youkai grabbed her around the waist and squeezed hard.  
  
"InuYasha!" she shrieked.  " _InuYasha!_ "  


 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

 

InuYasha sprinted through the trees.  ' _Trying to outrun your past?_ '  
  
"Keh!"  
  
' _You're not even angry at Kagome, not really . . . she didn't do anything . . . what are you so afraid of?_ '  
  
Altering his path in a loop, InuYasha kept running.  ' _I'm not afraid!  There's nothing to be afraid of!  Kagome just—_ '  
  
' _Loves you, baka!  And you're trying to push her away, aren't you?  Don't be stupid . . . she's the one you're afraid of_.'  
  
He winced.  ' _Shuddup_.'  
  
Kagome's scream permeated the night.  "Kagome!"  He pushed himself faster.  ' _Baka!  I left her alone!  Damn it!_ '  
  
A fierce howl of agony met his ears, made him cringe as he shot forward, toward the cave.  ' _Hold on, Kagome . . . what the hell have I done?_ '  Kagome screamed again, and this time, there was an underlying terror in the sound.  Whatever danger she was in had gotten worse.  The feel of her fear in the air was thick, heavy, choking.  
  
"InuYasha!" he heard her call out, " _InuYasha!_ "  
  
In a blur of movement, InuYasha leaped, clearing the treetops and drawing Tetsusaiga.   He spotted her below, a glimmer of pink light in the blackness.  ' _Two youkai . . . ._ ' One sauntered forward, and he could hear her voice.  
  
"Now be a good girl, and tell me where the Shikon no Tama is."  
  
"No."  
  
The male cat let go of Kagome.  He pushed her toward the female.  Turning Kagome and holding her arms, the female cat laughed.  "Tell me now or he'll use you as a scratching post, little girl . . . he might anyway for killing his brother."  
  
" _Kaze no Kizu!_ " InuYasha bellowed as he landed, slamming Tetsusaiga down into the earth as he hit the ground.  
  
The flames of the Wind Scar shot out, engulfing the male youkai in shockwaves of power as Kagome screamed his name.  Her cry was cut off as the female youkai hissed and backed away with Kagome held tightly.  
  
"Let her go," InuYasha demanded with a low growl.  
  
"Has the puppy come back to play?  Give me the jewel, InuYasha, or the miko dies."  She flexed her knuckles, her needle-like claws extending.  
  
InuYasha tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga and slowly turned to face the feline youkai.  A sudden haze of blue wrapped around the blade, and suddenly Kagome, too, was wrapped in the aura, the barrier.  
  
' _So it was Tetsusaiga_ ,' he realized as he stared at the barrier.  ' _But why?_ '  
  
"Barriers were made to be broken," the youkai purred as she raised her clawed hand.  
  
' _Damn it!  Maybe Tetsusaiga can't break that barrier, but there's no way in hell I'm taking that sort of chance!_ '  He clenched his jaw as he glared.  "Let her go, bitch!" he snarled as he lowered the sword.  The barrier dimmed then vanished.  
  
"Is she so special to you, InuYasha?  A human girl?"  
  
"Stop talking like you know me," he bit out, "and get your fucking hands off Kagome!"  
  
Surprise registered in the female's eyes, and she shook her head slowly.  "Aww, the puppy doesn't want to play?"  She sighed, an insincere smile surfacing on her face.  "Tell me, InuYasha, how is that cold-hearted brother of yours?  Why don't you fetch me the jewel, and then we can reminisce before I kill you and your precious miko?"  
  
"You know Sesshoumaru?"  
  
"Don't all of us girls?"  
  
"I don't really give a fuck."  
  
Kagome whimpered as the youkai's arm around her stomach tightened.  The feline's other hand moved in a blur too fast for InuYasha to pinpoint exactly where she struck but the smell of Kagome's blood hit him hard as she yelped.  The cat dug her claws into Kagome's side a little more, and InuYasha couldn't contain the furious growl that escaped him.  Kagome stared at him, shock registering in her eyes as she gasped, " _No!_ "  
  
He could feel the singe in his veins as his youkai blood pulsed, rushed like a tide trying to overflow his body, to take over his mind.  Fighting it back, he grimaced.  The feline youkai laughed.  "That's it, InuYasha.  Transform for Mai . . . ."  
  
"Fuck no," he growled, steadying Tetsusaiga.   His rage must have triggered the reaction because Tetsusaiga should have contained it . . . "I'll tell you one more time.  Let.  Her.  Go."  
  
Mai's eyes widened in mock-surprise as she slowly nodded in understanding.  "She's your bitch then?  This _human_ girl?  Just like your father, aren't you, puppy?  The great and powerful Inu no Taisho, brought to his knees by a mortal bitch, and you are just—like—him."  
  
Kagome struggled against Mai's hold.  The scent of her blood grew stronger.  InuYasha's growl escalated into a snarl, and he glanced at Kagome long enough to see that her eyes didn't hold the fear they should have.  Worry was there, tempered by a sense of calm, but the trace amount of fear was overshadowed by the absolute trust in her expression.  He nodded at her once before letting his gaze shift back to the youkai.  
  
"You'll hide behind her?  Can't stand on your own?" he taunted.  
  
Mai laughed again.  "On the contrary, InuYasha.  You're more worried about your bitch than you are about yourself or the jewel.  So why don't you hand it over?  I'll trade you."  
  
"Don't do it," Kagome said softly.  "Don't give her the jewel."  
  
Indecision wavered in his eyes.  ' _Damn it . . . how the hell do I get Kagome away from her?  I never should have left her!  Baka!_ '  
  
"I've heard enough from you!" Mai spat, raising her claws and swiping through the air.  InuYasha raised Tetsusaiga.  With the sword pointed directly at her, the blue barrier reformed around Kagome just in time to repel Mai's attack.  A hiss of pain, a snarl of agony cut through the night as the youkai's hand reflected off the barrier, sending Mai hurling back.  Kagome fell to her knees, and InuYasha stepped between her and Mai.  "How did you do that?" she demanded, rising to her feet as her yellow eyes narrowed on Kagome.  
  
"Kaze no Kizu!" InuYasha snarled, bringing down Tetsusaiga hard against the frozen earth.  
  
Mai rolled out of the way and shot to her feet with a sing-song growl.  "I've had enough of you, puppy!" she hissed, slashing her claws and sending silvery wind blades at him.  
  
"Not nearly enough," InuYasha countered as he blocked the blades with Tetsusaiga.  "You're no match for me."  
  
Mai slapped her hands together as a ball of silvery energy erupted from her.  InuYasha grabbed Kagome and leapt, avoiding the blast.  "Are you okay?" he asked as he gently set her on her feet outside the cave entrance.  
  
She nodded.  "Don't worry about me."  
  
"Keh!"  He let go of her and turned as Mai lunged at him.  InuYasha raised Tetsusaiga in time to block her, and he shoved her back.  She stumbled but didn't fall.  "Get back, Kagome!"  
  
She didn't answer but he heard her do as he told her.  Mai shot forward again, her claws ripping through InuYasha's haori, catching his shoulder as he spun to the side to avoid her.  A searing flash of pain erupted as the smell of his blood hit him.  He ignored it as he raised Tetsusaiga once more.  
  
"You'll never touch me with that ghastly fang," Mai taunted.  
  
InuYasha charged toward her.  "Don't be so sure!"  He cleaved the sword in a wide arc.  The feline youkai hissed as the tip of the blade met her flesh.  
  
Mai howled with rage and leaped at InuYasha.  
  
"InuYasha!  Look out!" Kagome shrieked as the cat caught InuYasha's wrist.  Tetsusaiga flew out of his hand, landing point-down in the earth.  The sword reverberated as it embedded itself and transformed back to its rusty form.  
  
InuYasha landed on his back.  Mai landed on his chest, raising her claws to swipe at him again.  InuYasha heaved her off as he rolled to his feet and lunged for Tetsusaiga.  Mai jumped into his path.  "Not strong enough on your own, without your father's fang?" she goaded.  "Guess you'll have to die then!"  
  
" _Sankon-tetsusou!_ " InuYasha bellowed as he swiped at the cat.  He caught her in the stomach, and she staggered back.  
  
With a furious shriek, she lunged again.  InuYasha swiped his hand over his torn shoulder and flicked his hand as he swung in a broad arc, " _Hijin-ketsusou!_ "  
  
The blood-red wind blades shot through the air, moving so fast that they left red tails, like comets sweeping over the ground.  They hit Mai in the chest.  The sickening sound of tearing flesh as the feline youkai was ripped open by the Blades of Blood, and she fell to her hands.  Blood dribbled from her, pooling beneath her, melting the snow, staining it black in the dim light of the moon.  
  
InuYasha jerked Tetsusaiga out of the ground as the blade transformed back into the fang, and he raised it as the wind twisted around it.  " _Kaze no Kizu!_ "  
  
Mai's body disintegrated in the flames, the black ashes dissipating on the sudden wind brought on by the attack.  With a sigh of relief, chest heaving as he struggled to breathe, InuYasha sheathed Tetsusaiga and lifted his gaze to Kagome.  
  
She stared at him for long moments, unmoving, unblinking.  With a strangled cry that seemed to have come from her very soul, she darted forward, into his arms.  He caught her, hugged her fiercely, relief crashing over him as he held her.  ' _Kagome . . . ._ '  
  
"I'm sorry," she babbled against his chest, "I didn't—"  
  
The scent of her blood cut through his mind.  With a harsh curse, he lifted her and carried her back to the cave.  "Let me see," he demanded as he set her down on her bedroll.  
  
She pushed his hands back gently.  "It's fine," she insisted.  "Doesn't even hurt now.  Let me see your shoulder."  
  
"Wench!" he argued, reaching for the bottom of her sweater again.  
  
Kagome twisted to the side as she leaned forward to inspect his wounds.  He growled.  "You're more important!  Now let me see!"  
  
"I'm not more important!  You are, stupid girl!"  
  
"I told you, they're just scratches!"  
  
"Then let me see," he insisted.  
  
"In a minute."  
  
"Stubborn wench!"  
  
"You're still bleeding," she pointed out, "so let me clean you up first."  
  
He sighed as she retrieved her first aid kit and made quick work of wiping him off with one of her antiseptic towelettes.  Then she wiped off his wrist and wrapped a bandage around it before sitting back to observe her handiwork.  A sudden worry crossed her features, and she leaned forward again.  "You didn't reopen your stomach wounds, did you?"  
  
InuYasha rolled his eyes but yanked open his haori and undershirt, knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied until she saw for herself that he hadn't done anything of the sort.  
  
An odd expression passed over Kagome's face, a sort of confusion as she stared at his chest.  She forced her eyes away as a flush stole up her cheeks, and she swallowed hard.  "Yeah . . . good . . . ."  
  
He didn't bother to close his shirt as he reached out to catch her hand.  "Let me see," he said gently.  
  
Her blush darkened to a very nice shade of 'Monk-in-Pain'-red, and he frowned.  "I told you, they're just scratches.  Don't worry."  
  
InuYasha sniffed at her.  She leaned back.  "I can't figure out where you're bleeding," he admitted as his frown deepened.  "You're covered with blood from that other youkai.  Now let me see."  
  
"No!"  Suddenly she hopped up and ran over to wash her hands in the water pan.  Making a face at the dirty water, she grabbed the pan and took off toward the cave entrance.  She returned a minute later with the pan heaped with fresh clean snow.  
  
"Why won't you let me see?" he finally asked.  "I thought you trusted me."  
  
"I do."  
  
"Then let me see your so-called scratch."  
  
She deliberately ignored his question as she dug through her bag for a clean shirt.  "I really need a bath," she commented as she somehow managed to put the shirt on by pulling it over her head then tucking it into the neck of the sweater and wiggling her arms around inside the sweater until she finally pulled it off and dropped it with a grimace.  
  
InuYasha blinked in surprise.  If he had tried doing that, he would have ended up tying himself in a knot . . . .  
  
Kagome used some of the fresh water to brush her teeth as she tried to ignore him.  She hurried out of the cave to dump that water, too, and by the time she came back, InuYasha was digging his claws into the dirt again.  
  
She scooted under the blankets and turned her back to him.  "Good night, InuYasha."  
  
"Oh, no," he growled.  "You're at least going to tell me why you won't let me see these 'scratches' of yours."  
  
"They're fine."  
  
"I can still smell your blood, Kagome."  
  
"That's because I didn't get a chance to wash it off," she replied calmly.  
  
"Where?"  
  
With a sigh, she sat up and turned to face him again.  "I'm fine, I promise."  Her gaze fell to his shoulder again and she grimaced.  "But you're not.  Let me bandage that."  
  
Against his better judgment, he let her stick one of those large patches on his shoulder.  She smoothed the tape into place and tucked one edge of the tape under on the roll.  He caught her wrist and held on.  Hesitantly, her gaze lifted to meet his, and he glared at her.  "Where?"  
  
Her cheeks pinked again, and her chin dropped as she stared at her hand caught in his.  "It's embarrassing," she finally admitted in a small voice.  
  
"Embarrassing?  How can a wound be embarrassing?"  
  
She scowled at him.  "The _wound_ isn't embarrassing!  Where it _is_ , is!"  
  
"Where is it?"  
  
She didn't look like she was going to answer him.   She shrugged miserably, obviously figuring out that he wasn't about to drop it.  "Here," she said, indicating the side of her left breast before she pinned him with a glower.  "And I'm _not_ showing you."  
  
He blinked in surprise and let go of her wrist.  "Well, you could have told me sooner," he shot back.  
  
"It was _embarrassing!_ "  
  
"It was a _wound!_ "  
  
" _Baka!_ "  
  
His retort was cut off by his stomach demanding food.  
  
Kagome blinked, her gaze falling to his stomach, and he frowned.  "You want some stew?"  
  
"No."  
  
She grinned at his sulky tone.  "Ramen?"  
  
"No."  
  
"One of Miroku's energy bars?"  
  
" _Fuck_ no."  
  
"You've got to eat."  
  
"Keh."  
  
Her smile widened.  "I've got Shippou's pocky."  
  
His ears twitched.  She giggled.  "Thought you said before it was only for the runt."  
  
She shrugged.  "I brought more than usual.  Shippou won't even miss it."  
  
She got up and dug into her bag.  InuYasha grimaced as he rotated his shoulder.  ' _Damn cat._ ' Then he grinned as Kagome handed him a box of chocolate pocky.  
  
He tore into the box without hesitation as Kagome giggled.  "You shouldn't have that instead of real food."  
  
"Hush, wench.  I'm eating."  
  
She reached over and tweaked his ear.  He deliberately jerked back, flicking it to tease her.  "I see," she commented before scooting down in her blankets and rolling up in them with her back to him.  
  
He grinned to himself as Kagome fell asleep and he ate the treat.  ' _Hmm.  I may have to_ accidentally _let this slip to the blackmailing brat . . . ._ '

  

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **Hijin-ketsusou** : Blades of Blood


	35. Silent Night

Sango replaced the hot compress on Miroku's shoulder, trying to be as gentle as she could.  He, in turn, tried his best not to make a sound as she administered treatment to his still-sore shoulder.  It was nearly impossible, she discovered as he hissed loudly as the tender flesh shot out dull waves of agonized pulse-beats down his arm and out to the rest of his body.  
  
"Sorry," Sango said quietly, careful not to wake Shippou.  Asleep on the tiny pallet across the fire pit from them with Kirara curled around him, the kit had been on edge ever since they'd arrived at Katosan's castle earlier in the day.  
  
"It's fine, Sango.  I'll pay better attention the next time we're training," he told her.  
  
Sango wasn't reassured.  "Why do you suppose Katosan changed his mind about going after the book?  I mean, it doesn't make sense, does it?  He acted like we didn't dare wait for InuYasha and Kagome, and now he wants to do exactly that?  This isn't right . . . ."  
  
Miroku sighed, staring pensively into the flames before him.  "I agree.  Best be on our guards.  Did you notice when we arrived?  There are more sentries out, but Kagome has said that InuYasha trusts Katosan, right?"  
  
Sango nodded slowly.  She didn't want to say it out loud, but she knew that Miroku likely thought exactly what she did.  ' _It's a trap . . . for InuYasha . . . but why?  And how could we have been so stupid as to fall into it?_ '  Taking her time as she squeezed extra water out of a cloth to replace the one on Miroku's shoulder, Sango peeked up at the monk through her eyelashes.  "Do you think we can get out of here?"  
  
Miroku glanced at the door and shook his head.  "Best we play along with it, for now.  Katosan doesn't know we suspect anything . . . we should keep it that way, at least, until InuYasha arrives."  
  
"You think he'll come?"  
  
Miroku snorted out a short laugh.  "You think he won't?"  
  
Sango grinned despite her bleak thoughts.  "I suppose you're right."  She replaced the compress on Miroku's shoulder and turned, leaning over to retrieve the scarf she kept her belongings in.  No sooner had she leaned over than she felt the familiar rub on her rear.  Her smile widened just a little before she schooled her features and whipped around to pin the monk with a formidable glower.  "Watch the hand, monk."  
  
Miroku held his hands up in silent defense but laughed.  "I couldn't help myself!" he told her.  "You're just so lovely, and I've been good for weeks . . . I've not rubbed a single rear since I vowed to have you train me."  
  
Sango rolled her eyes but didn't clobber Miroku as she got the small bottle of mystical ointment out of her scarf.  Kagome brought it back not too long ago.  It was called Flex-All 454, and it did wonders to relieve aches and pains.  She hadn't tried it on Miroku's shoulder sooner since he hadn't been able to tolerate anyone even lightly touching it.  
  
Seeing what she had, Miroku turned to give Sango better access to his shoulder.  His breath hissed as the cold gel touched his skin but soon relaxed as Sango's hands worked it into his injured appendage.  "This is nice," he commented.  
  
Sango flushed, glad that he couldn't see her face, her expression.  His voice had been soft, husky, caressing, even if it hadn't been intentional.  Her belly erupted as a million butterflies invaded the confined space, and she struggled to keep her own breathing calm and even.  "I'm glad it's helping," she said, praying that the tremors in her body weren't evident in her tone.  
  
Miroku turned to stare into Sango's eyes.  Those miraculous violet eyes were startling, an intensity in his gaze that didn't do a thing to calm the unsettling emotion that licked at her.  "I wasn't talking about that stuff," he remarked, his voice huskier, even more caressing.  Sango couldn't breathe.  
  
He leaned toward her, his stare dropping to her lips—oddly dry, she realized in a dazed sort of way.  She licked her lips.  He groaned.  "Sango . . . ."  
  
"H-Houshi-sama . . .?"  
  
He leaned in a little closer, his mouth so close that she could feel his breath fanning against her lips.  "I want . . . to kiss you."  
  
Her belly wrapped around itself, a lethargic heat filtering through her body, centering in her core, embracing her heart as she forgot to breathe.  "Houshi-sama . . . ."  
  
For torturous seconds, he hesitated, his lips lingering close but not touching hers.  Her heart thumped almost painfully in her chest, heat ebbed and flowed, intensified to the point that Sango wanted to scream.  He was so close— _too_ close.  As though every secret desire she'd ever had—every wanton thought that had ever crossed her mind had become a living thing, she wanted to reach for him, to call out to him.  His lips brushed hers, no more than a whisper in the dark, and then . . . .  
  
He sighed and retreated, an air of rejection suddenly engulfing him as he shot her an apologetic glance.  
  
Sango held her hands, clasped to her chest.  Not trusting herself to speak, she snapped the cap closed on the bottle of ointment and dropped it on her belongings.  
  
"I'll kiss you, Sango," he remarked softly, drawing her gaze.  
  
"Will you?"  
  
He grinned at the hint of sulkiness in her tone.  "When you ask me to."  
  
She narrowed her eyes at the monk, shoving her hands under her knees before she gave in to the overwhelming desire to beat him black and blue.  "When I ask, huh?"  She pushed herself to her feet and stomped over to her futon, deliberately lying down so that she gave Miroku her back.  The hentai houshi chuckled.  Sango nearly growled out loud in frustration.  ' _Ask?_ Ask?   _Oh, just wait, houshi-sama . . . this is war . . ._ .'  
  
"I'll show you the true meaning of 'Monk-in-Pain'-red," she mumbled.  
  
"What was that, Sango, my sweet?"  
  
"Hmm?  Oh, nothing . . . . Good night, houshi-sama."  
  
She didn't have to look to know that he was smiling.  "Good night, Sango."  
  


**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

****

 

****

Kagome awoke in the cold cave, engulfed in darkness.  She shivered slightly and blinked, trying in vain to see anything at all.  Not wishing to leave the warmth of her blankets, she whined softly and braced herself with a deep breath before she threw off the blanket and sat up.  The cold air hit her like a dousing of water, and she squeaked as she felt around for her backpack.  ' _M-m-must find m-m-m-matches_ ,' she thought wildly as she fumbled in the dark.  She found her flashlight first and sighed in relief as she flicked it on to aide her search.   She found the matches and in short order had a little fire going again.  Glancing at her watch, she was surprised to see that it was only one in the morning.  ' _Wait a minute . . . where's InuYasha?_ '  
  
He was sitting in the entrance to the cave sleeping with his back against a boulder.  The fight with Mai came rushing back, and Kagome sighed.  ' _Poor guy . . . bet he blames himself, but . . . ._ ' she dragged on her coat and snatched up her blankets before wandering over to him.  Arms wrapped around Tetsusaiga, he was asleep, as she had suspected.  He wouldn't have let the fire burn out otherwise, and Kagome frowned as she stared at him, a guilty pang twisting her stomach.  He'd slept here to keep anything that might attack at bay . . . away from her.  
  
She sat down beside him, tossing the blanket so that it settled over both of them.  He awoke with a soft moan, eyes flashing open as his hand tightened on Tetsusaiga.  "It's just me," Kagome whispered.  
  
InuYasha blinked groggily and scowled at her.  "What are you doing out here, wench?"  
  
She shrugged as she let her head fall against his shoulder.  "I couldn't sleep," she replied, deciding it wasn't important to tell him why that had been.  "Why are you sleeping out here?"  
  
"Keh!" he snorted then yawned.   "Someone had to keep watch, didn't they?  You were busy getting your beauty sleep."  
  
She grinned despite his surly tone.  "Oh, well I need that."  
  
"Like hell."  
  
Her breath caught in somewhere between her lips and her lungs, and her back stiffened.  "InuYasha?"  
  
He suddenly smiled in the half-light.  "Fishing for compliments, wench?"  
  
She opened her mouth then snapped it closed again.  "No," she grumbled, wrapping her arms around her knees.  "Not at all."  
  
"Keh."  
  
Kagome stared up at the myriad of stars dotting the heavens.  "It's really remarkable, isn't it?  How far away do you suppose they are?  How long do you think it'd take to get to one?"  
  
He followed the direction of her gaze.  "To the stars?"  
  
She nodded.  "Um-hmm . . . We learned about them in school.  Somehow that takes all the wonder out of it though."  
  
"I don't think they're so far away."  
  
"You don't?"  
  
He shook his head.  When she glanced at him, he was staring at her so intently that she could feel herself blush.  ' _Kiss him, Kagome!  You know he wouldn't mind . . . ._ '  
  
Suddenly, he frowned and glared at the blanket, ears drooping ever-so-slightly.  "Kagome . . . I'm sorry."  
  
"What for?"  
  
His frown darkened to a scowl.  "What do you mean, what for?  You were in danger because of me."  
  
"Hey!  I did manage to take out one of the youkai . . . besides, you came back."  
  
She reached for one of his ears.  He leaned away and caught her hand.  "That's not what I meant," he said with a frown.  He stared at it, blue in the moonlight, so tiny in his.  "Every time I turn around, you're in danger.  Youkai after the Shikon no Tama . . . or youkai after me because of what I am."  
  
She sighed softly.  "Maybe . . . but I'm here because I want to be."  
  
Her answer didn't appease him.  "That's not the point!  You can't fight.  You've gotten better than you used to be, maybe . . . and I don't want you to, anyway."  
  
Kagome tried not to take offense to InuYasha's unkind assessment.  "You make it sound like I can't hit the broad side of a barn," she grumbled.  
  
InuYasha ignored her to say, "I want you safe, Kagome, even if that means you're not with me.  Can you understand that?  This life . . . fighting youkai and running from danger . . . never knowing who's going to attack you . . . my own brother tries to kill me.  You've seen it, and . . . I can't ask you to do it."  
  
He dropped her hand and shot to his feet, stalking over to the trees.  He seemed like he wanted to leap into them.  He didn't.  "I've heard it my whole life, you know?  I'm a worthless half-breed.  I'm not human, and I'm not youkai, and I have nothing to give you."  She stood to go to him but the look he shot her stopped her.  Eyes glowing, a fierceness in his stare that she didn't recognize, Kagome couldn't move.  InuYasha's voice dropped to nearly a whisper.  She barely heard him when he spoke again.  "I'm going to take you home, and this time, I want you to stay there.  Don't come back, Kagome.  You don't belong here.  You never really have."  
  
Tears rose to choke her, and she tried to blink them back.  Angry, bitter, they came with a will of their own, a vengeance that tore her soul open and left her heart shattering into countless shards.  She whimpered then cut the sound off with a deep breath before she swallowed hard, pushing down the hurt, the ache, the feeling that a part of her was dying, and that part was her heart.  
  
"You're so _stupid!_ " she choked out with a small sob.  "Does it make you feel better, to push aside every single person who's ever tried to care about you?  You say it's for me but it's really for you, isn't it?  Are you scared, InuYasha?  Are you so sure that the second you let someone care about you that they're going to leave?  I _hate_ you . . ." Another sob welled up inside her, and Kagome turned, running blindly into the cave.  "I hate you," she whispered again as she snatched her backpack.  She didn't care that it was the middle of the night, that she didn't know the way back home.  All she knew was that he was breaking her heart, and she was dying a little more inside, with every second that ticked away.  
  
She whirled around to run and slammed right into InuYasha's chest.  He caught her arms gently but firmly, made her look up at him.  The hurt in his eyes cut her deep.  "You _hate_ me?"  
  
"What do you care?" she asked miserably.  Her words were bitter though her tone was full of ache, of misery.  "You don't care.  You said—"  
  
"I said I want you to be _safe_ , Kagome . . . I never said I hated you!  How could you even think—?"  
  
She tried to pull away from him, jerked against him.  His hands held her.  "Let go of me!  You can't do this, and I . . . I—let go!"  
  
He did—long enough to drag her forward, into his arms, against his chest.  "I can't," he admitted, his voice weak, whispering.  "I can't."  She raised her chin, leaning back to look at him.  He wasn't crying but it didn't look like it was far off.  He shook his head slightly, staring at her, as though he was willing her to read his mind.  "Why would I rather die than let you leave?" he asked quietly.  
  
"Don't make me go," she whispered, burying her face in his chest.  "I want to be here . . . . Please."  
  
His arms tightened as her words registered.  He sank down on her bedroll with Kagome in his arms.  "Don't cry," he pleaded, fumbling as he tried to wipe her tears.  
  
"I'm sorry," she wailed, sobbing harder against his chest.  "I don't hate you . . . I  . . . ."  
  
"Please don't cry," he begged.  "You . . . you can say 'it' as many times as you want, just stop . . . ."  
  
For some reason, that only made her cry harder.  InuYasha was closing in on flat-out panic.  "Kagome?"  
  
"I don't want to say 'it'," she sniffled.  "I just want to be here, with you."  
  
Hooking her chin with his finger, he tilted her head up to look at him.  He looked like he wanted to say something to her.  He stared at her, using the pad of his thumb to wipe away the remaining traces of her tears as she drew in a shaking breath as he dropped his mouth over hers.  Lying in his arms was enough, and Kagome let him kiss her, let him tease her, his fangs scraping against her mouth.  He slowly nibbled on her bottom lip.  She shivered in his arms, clinging to him, hands tightly gripping his haori.  He kissed her cheeks, her eyes, her jaw.  Lost in a tide of emotion, she didn't fight him, accepting what he offered her without hesitation.  
  
Thought faded as sensation took hold of her.  The feel of his mouth, the demanding tug of his lips, he drew her out, pulled her back, scattered her senses with too many emotions to count, as innumerable as the stars in the sky.  Every touch of his lips was another stone in the pond as the ripples spread outward, centering around the one spot in her mind, the one word she knew, the one central feeling, the knowledge that she held to with a ferocity, a need, an increasing desire.  ' _I love him . . . ._ '  
  
She turned, falling between his raised knees, pulled herself up against him as she sought out his mouth again.  InuYasha groaned, growled, tasted her as she collapsed against him.  Rising up inside her, something wanton, something beautiful, a connection between herself and him, something that burned like a beacon to a ship lost at sea, converging in one thought, one word, one hope, "InuYasha . . . ." In the ebb and flow of the tides, he sheltered her against the waves that licked at her skin, that broke over her body, that threatened to drag her under.    
  
And yet, as beautiful as the kisses were, something was missing, something that tugged at her more and more insistently, something she needed to soothe the ache that welled up inside her.  If he stopped barraging her senses, she'd probably know what it was.  He wasn't finished though.  His fangs were his ally—her enemy.  Trailing against her jaw, running along the sharp angles, he kissed her.  Nuzzling against her cheek, she felt as though something inside her was dying and yet she'd never felt quite so alive, either.  The contradiction in emotion drew a soft whimper.  That sound brought his lips back to hers.  "I can't let you go," he whispered against her mouth.  "I . . . will you stay?"  
  
"Baka," she whispered back, a tiny smile curling the corners of her lips.  She ran her fingers over his mouth.  He shuddered.  "You have to ask?"  
  
Obvious relief washed over him, lighting the depths of his gaze.  "Do you still hate me?"  
  
"Yeah," she remarked, her smile slowly widening.  "About as much as you hate me."  
  
He sighed, dragging her blanket over them.  She hadn't realized he'd brought it in.  "Sneaky wench."    
  
He smoothed her hair, pulled her close, cradled her head against his chest, tucked under his chin.  Through his layers of clothing, she could hear the erratic beat of his heart.  She snuggled against him, reveling in the feel of being so close to him.  "InuYasha—"  
  
His lips brushed against her forehead.  "Go to sleep, Kagome."  
  
"But—"  
  
"Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?"  
  
She heaved a loud sigh to protest his accusation.  He chuckled.  Lulled by his heartbeat under her ear, she closed her eyes.  
  
Softly at first, and then a little louder, InuYasha sang to her in the quiet of the cave.  As she drifted off to sleep, she smiled.  ' _This is how . . . Izayoi must have felt . . . ._ '  
  


**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

****

 

****

InuYasha finished the song and smiled as he stared at Kagome, her face buried in the crook of his neck, her breath tickling his skin.  Why did looking at her fill him with such a feeling of well-being?  ' _She belongs with you, baka_.'  
  
' _I don't deserve someone like her . . . I don't deserve someone who looks at me the way she does, like I can do anything, like I can be anyone, just for her . . . and if I know that now, how long before she starts to realize it, too?_ '  
  
He swallowed the lump that choked him as he stared at her in his arms.  Hurtful things said over the passage of years reminded him over and over how unworthy he was.  Too hard to forget those things.  He hadn't realized that, after hearing something enough times that it was easier to believe it than it was not to.  ' _But she knows what you are, and she still believes in you.  Shouldn't that mean something?_ '  
  
Kagome's written words were whispered to him in the half-light as he stared at the shadows dancing over the cave walls.  ' _I love him.  I can't regret anything, because being with him, being near him, being close to him makes me happy, and even if he never loves me the way I love him, I think that is enough._ '  
  
Was it enough?  Would it be enough?  For how long?  
  
He sighed.  When they had returned through the well, they were supposed to head out to find Waku so that InuYasha could settle the score.  Instead they were chasing down a lecherous monk, a youkai exterminator, a fire cat, and a little pain in the ass, and as much as he hated to admit it, it did seem a little strange, that Katosan had finally found the whereabouts of the diary he had failed to mention before.  He shook his head slowly.  Was he letting Kagome's distrust jade his view?  Then again, he also had to admit that Kagome normally was a fairly good judge of character . . . .  
  
Kagome whimpered in her sleep, nudging just a little closer to him.  He tightened his arms around her.  ' _If we aren't meant to be together, like this . . . then holding her wouldn't feel so perfect, would it?_ '  
  
He smoothed her bangs out of her face and kissed her forehead again, unable to stop himself.  The invisible draw of her was enough to make him want to wake her up, to hear her laugh, to make her smile, to kiss her lips.  He wished someone could tell him what to do.  He wished he knew where to look for answers.  
  
InuYasha was still awake hours later as dawn broke over the distant horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 


	36. Good and Evil

“Wake up, wench.”

“Hmm?”

InuYasha smiled vaguely as Kagome stirred out of her sleep. Still exhausted from both their encounter with Mai as well as the disagreement following, InuYasha hadn't been surprised that she'd spent the majority of their travel time sleeping against his back. It hadn't bothered him. It had given him more time to think.

He could drive himself crazy, worrying and waiting and wondering when Kagome would reject him. Yet in his heart, he had to admit that he wondered if she ever would. He wasn't the easiest person to get along with, but she didn't seem to mind. There were times when he'd catch her staring at him like she thought he could conquer the world for her, and she wasn't far wrong. If she asked him to, he'd run to the edge of the earth and back again, whatever she wanted . . . .

Reading her diary after she'd fallen asleep, he'd been reminded of something that he had forgotten. Over the course of time that they'd traveled together, some things had dimmed in his mind, things that hadn't seemed significant at the time but now were more bits of the puzzle that was Kagome.

` _InuYasha wanted to increase Tetsusaiga's power, so he went to see Totosai, and after a mix-up and some fake `training' that actually ended up just preparing a bath for the swordsmith, InuYasha returned, and though he wasn't any stronger, he had made a new friend. We set out then to find more shards. I guess the theory was, if InuYasha couldn't figure out how to break Naraku's barrier that protected his castle, then the least we could do was continue on, business as usual_.

` _Myouga showed up to tell InuYasha of a way to strengthen Tetsusaiga enough to break powerful barriers. After finding out that he only needed to defeat a youkai that could cast a strong enough barrier, we set out again. This morning, we met Shiori, a bat_ _hanyou_ _, and possibly the cutest and yet saddest little girl I've ever seen._ _With a human mother and a powerful youkai father, I can see in InuYasha's face that he can identify with her. The trouble is, she is the keeper of the barrier, and even though InuYasha wants to strengthen Tetsusaiga, I know in my heart that he cannot hurt her. Too young, too vulnerable, too much like him . . . I only wish there were another way for InuYasha to achieve his goal, another way that doesn't include having to harm Shiori . . . ._ '

Kagome had been right. There hadn't even been a question in InuYasha's mind about harming Shiori. It didn't matter that he needed to strengthen his sword. The idea of hurting her had sickened him, put him on par with the youkai who exploited her abilities for their own gains. In the end, InuYasha had helped to free Shiori from her youkai grandfather and had helped the little girl return home to her mother, where she should have been, all along. Maybe her mother couldn't save Shiori the ridicule of humans and youkai, but she'd love her daughter, and maybe that had been enough.

He'd also been able to strengthen Tetsusaiga, too. Myouga had been mistaken. InuYasha didn't have to harm Shiori; he only had to destroy the red sphere that contained the power to create the barrier. Shiori had been the only one who could utilize that power, and in exchange for helping her return home, she had willingly sacrificed the sphere.

` _How does she do that? How is it that Kagome knows me better than I even know myself?_ ' Those were the questions that had preoccupied him. It frightened him, how easy it was for her to discern him.

But maybe it wasn't nearly so important to know why Kagome felt the way she did so long as she _did_ feel that way? Maybe, if he felt more worthy of her, maybe if he thought he had something to offer her . . . maybe . . . .

“We're almost there.”

“Mmm.”

His smile widened as they crested the hill that overlooked Katosan's castle. He carefully lowered Kagome's feet to the ground but didn't let go of her until he was certain she was awake. “Come on, wench. I ain't carrying you into the castle.”

She stretched and yawned, blinking in surprise as she took in her surroundings. “I slept all day?”

“Keh! Pathetic human.” He let go of her and stalked forward. Kagome ran to catch up and fell in step beside him.

“I'll be up all night,” she remarked.

“So long as you're not chattering the whole time.”

Her retort was cut short when Katosan stepped outside to greet them. “InuYasha-sama! I'm pleased that you decided to come.”

InuYasha followed Katosan into the castle as Kagome followed along behind. “Kaede said you found the diary,” he remarked.

Katosan narrowed his eyes. “I'm afraid that it was a mistaken lead. I apologize for your having come all this way for nothing. However, since you are here, there was something I did wish to discuss with you—” his eyes flicked coolly over Kagome, “—alone.”

Kagome's hand slipped into his and squeezed. InuYasha turned and offered her a half-smile. “Why don't you go find the others? Make sure everyone's all right?”

She nodded and took the backpack from his other hand. He watched as she headed toward the hallway and the rooms they'd occupied on their last two visits.

“You care for that miko.”

InuYasha deliberately blanked his expression as his gaze shifted back to Katosan. “What of it?”

Katosan smiled slightly and shook his head. “She is lovely. A word of friendly advice?” InuYasha nodded once. Katosan glanced around before leaning in close to tell him, “Show caution. Wearing your heart on your sleeve might prove detrimental to you. You never know who might seek to exploit such a vulnerability.”

InuYasha digested that for a moment before he answered. “Kagome ain't a vulnerability. What did you want to talk to me about?”

“I wondered if you've given any more thought to what I told you about Musashi.”

“Musashi?”

Katosan wandered over to the fire and knelt down before gesturing for InuYasha to join him. He did, ignoring the cushion on the floor as he sat down in his normal fashion. “Do you plan on taking the miko as your mate?”

“Hadn't thought about it,” InuYasha grumbled, feeling his face warming uncomfortably. For some reason, he didn't want to talk about this, at least with Katosan.

“If you are,” Katosan went on smoothly, “then perhaps you ought to consider it. The Inu no Taisho meant for you to have it, InuYasha-sama, and I daresay your miko would prefer life in a castle as opposed to life . . . in a cave?”

InuYasha tried not to let it show, that Katosan's words hit home. Hadn't he thought the same thing already? He knew he didn't have anything to offer her, and yet she didn't seem to care, either . . . or did she? “She wouldn't want all of Musashi,” InuYasha remarked, struggling to keep the hint of doubt out of his tone. “Kagome doesn't care about stuff like that.”

“Are you so sure? Begging your pardon, InuYasha-sama . . . she is a mortal, and mortals . . . are greedy.”

“Keh! You're wrong about Kagome.”

“InuYasha-sama . . . it would pain me to see you lose the one you care for over an oversight like this when you could rectify it before it ever became an issue. If you set your sights on Musashi, I would be willing to offer my assistance, whatever the cost.”

InuYasha shook his head. “What the hell would I do with all of Musashi? I don't want it, and I don't need it.”

Katosan shrugged. “Think on it, InuYasha-sama. Would you dishonor your father by not claiming what he willingly gave you?”

InuYasha frowned. “My old man gave me Tetsusaiga. That was enough.”

Katosan's smile was enigmatic, faintly condescending. “Think about your miko, then. Is your father's Tetsusaiga enough for her? Oughtn't you consider what _she_ might want?”

` _Not Kagome_.' InuYasha pondered his words for a moment before he stood up and left Katosan. ` _She never acts like she cares about material things . . . She'd give away everything she had, if someone needed it . . . No . . . Katosan's wrong about her . . . ._ '

“InuYasha! You've finally arrived!” Miroku said as he stepped out of his chamber.

“What? No black eye this time? Sango must be slipping . . . .” He stopped and wrinkled his nose before sniffing once and jerking back, away from the monk. “What the fuck is that smell?”

“Smell? What smell?”

InuYasha covered his nose with his forearm with a wince. “Hell, it's you! What the fuck _is_ that?”

Miroku sniffed, too, looking confused for a moment. His eyes widened suddenly, as though he realized what it was that InuYasha had smelled. “I don't smell a thing.”

“You wouldn't if it's your _own_ stench, monk! Ugh!” InuYasha staggered away from Miroku, backing into Kagome's room. “Get the hell _away_ from me!”

Kagome looked up as Miroku followed InuYasha through the doorway. From her place on the floor coloring with Shippou, she seemed to sense something, too. She made a face and wrinkled her nose as Shippou covered his with his tiny paws. “Miroku . . . why does it smell like you took a bath in Flex-All?” Kagome asked dryly.

InuYasha skittered away from the monk to kneel down behind Kagome, burying his nose in her hair to counteract the vapors emanating off the monk. “ _Get out!_ ” he bellowed. His nose stung from the fumes.

“I tried to warn you, Miroku,” Shippou said without uncovering his face before he turned to blink at Kagome. “Can I sleep in here with you?”

“Of course—”

“Not!” InuYasha snarled.

Miroku chuckled and bowed, hand before his face. “Is there something you two wish to share?”

“No!” Kagome and InuYasha insisted, which only served to further Miroku's amusement.

Miroku's grin was downright smug as he remarked, “Ahh, matching shades of `Monk-in-Pain'-red? Interesting . . . _very_ interesting.”

“Kagome! InuYasha! When did you arrive?” Sango asked as she stepped inside the room behind Miroku.

“Just,” Shippou remarked as he turned his attention back to his picture, burying his nose in his sleeve.

Miroku closed the door and leaned against the wall as Sango knelt down across the fire pit from InuYasha and Kagome. “Have you spoken to Katosan, InuYasha? Has he told you anything?”

InuYasha lifted his nose out of Kagome's hair, made a disgusted face, muttered something that they were all probably better off not hearing, and buried his nose again. “Yeah . . . he said he wanted you to beat the crap out of the monk if he doesn't do something about that smell.”

For some reason, Sango blushed. Kagome turned her head to exchange questioning glances with InuYasha before she narrowed her gaze on the two. “Why _do_ you smell like a bottle of Flex-All?” she asked slowly.

“Sango whacked him a good one with Hiraikotsu,” Shippou supplied without looking up from his picture.

“Nice,” InuYasha approved, peeking around Kagome's shoulder. “Impressive, Sango.” Golden eyes flashed to lock on the monk. “Lemme see.”

“No one needs to see anything,” Miroku insisted as his face blossomed in a vivid shade of scarlet. “Anyway, the bruise is nearly gone now, and—”

“It is not,” Shippou piped up, raising his eyes though his nose remained buried in his sleeve. “It was bright purple last night, and sort of yellowish, but it was still there . . . .”

“Thank you, Shippou,” Miroku remarked tightly, face growing redder by the second.

“Where'd you hit him, Sango?” InuYasha pressed.

Sango blushed as dark as Miroku. “I didn't mean to,”

InuYasha nudged Kagome's arm. “Must've been another invisible youkai.”

“Must've been,” Kagome agreed.

“C'mon, monk! Let's see!” InuYasha goaded.

“It's not that big a deal,” Miroku insisted.

“That's what you get for ass-grabbing, lecher,” InuYasha added for good measure.

“Yeah . . . at least you're not trying to kiss her anymore,” Shippou grumbled.

Four shocked expressions greeted Shippou's commentary. InuYasha and Kagome gaped at Sango and Miroku, who looked shocked for completely different reasons—and were both very, very, _very_ red-faced.

InuYasha was the first to recover. “No wonder she tried to kill you,” he remarked.

One of Katosan's servants entered the room, bowing low to the assembled friends. “Begging your pardon. The meal is served.”

InuYasha grabbed Kagome's arm before she could follow her friends out of the room. “Miroku really needs to get rid of that smell,” he told her. “Katosan's full youkai. It'll knock him out.”

She nodded. “I wonder what we missed?”

InuYasha made a face. “I dunno . . . but I'm kind of glad we did.”

Kagome giggled and quickly leaned forward to kiss him.

“Ahhh! What's going on?” Shippou yelled, shaking his head back and forth as he smashed his hands over his ears. “What happened to you two?”

Kagome froze. InuYasha leaped to intercept the kitsune, who was running for the door as quickly as he could go. “You didn't see a thing, runt! Got that?”

Shippou's scream escalated. Miroku poked his head back into the room. “What's . . . going on?”

InuYasha let go of Shippou, who bounded over and pounced onto the monk's shoulder. “Ahhhhh,” Miroku hissed, dumping the kitsune onto the floor.

Shippou shrieked, hopping up and skittering out of the room as he called out for Sango just as InuYasha lunged for him again. Miroku clutched his shoulder and stared at InuYasha, who was sprawled on the floor at his feet. “I take it Shippou irritated you?”

“The shoulder, eh?” InuYasha countered as he got up and covered his nose again. “You'd better get rid of your stench before you see Katosan. You're liable to kill him, stinking like that.” Pushing past the monk, InuYasha couldn't help himself as he patted Miroku's sore shoulder hard. Miroku nearly hit his knees as pain registered in his expression. “Hurry up, will you? Come on, wench!”

Kagome hurried after InuYasha but stopped to grimace at the suffering monk. “I'll take a look at that after dinner, if you want.”

“Thanks,” Miroku gasped. He straightened up slowly and winced again. Somehow, he just wasn't that hungry anymore . . . .

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“This is heaven!” Kagome said with a happy sigh as she settled into the warm bathwater.

Sango glanced up with a smile as she fussed over Kagome's clothes. “Kagome? Is this blood?” she asked, holding up the crimson sweater that Kagome had worn the day before.

Kagome opened her eyes and peeked over. “Yeah. We were attacked by three cat youkai.”

Sango frowned and dropped the sweater into the pile of dirty clothes. “I'm glad you're safe. Then again, InuYasha would never let harm come to you, so I don't worry when you're with him.”

Kagome's smile faded, and she remained silent as she leaned over the side of the tub to retrieve her body wash and scrubby sponge.

“Kagome? Is something wrong?”

“Hmm? Oh . . . no . . . .” She forced a smile that Sango saw right through.

“What is it, really?”

Kagome sighed and slowly scrubbed her neck and arms. “Nothing, really . . . .” Taking a deep breath, she smiled and sent the exterminator a pointed look. “Now what's going on between you and Miroku? There's something that you two aren't saying . . . and was Shippou telling the truth? Miroku almost _kissed_ you?”

Sango flushed and sank down on her knees to refold the still-clean clothes. To her surprise, Sango actually looked irritated. “I thought Shippou was sleeping,” Sango grumbled in a distinctly un-Sango-like tone. Then she sighed. “He said . . . he said he wouldn't kiss me unless I asked him to,” she admitted in a tiny voice.

Kagome was taken aback by that. “He did?”

Sango nodded, her cheeks reddening a little more. “It makes me want to . . . I don't know . . . do _something_!”

Kagome could see Sango's point. ` _Talk about frustration . . . if InuYasha made me ask . . . ._ ' Deliberately curtailing that thought since the very idea of InuYasha's kisses was enough to bring a flush to her own cheeks, Kagome bit her lip and tried to concentrate on Sango's problem. “So . . . make him sorry he said that?”

Sango choked a little. “Wha—? _How?_ ”

Resting her forearms on the side of the tub with her chin atop her hands, Kagome turned thoughtful as she considered Sango's dilemma. “Make him want to kiss you so badly he can't stand it.”

If Sango had thought that she couldn't flush any darker, she was mistaken. The poor exterminator was as red as InuYasha's fire rat haori, and she pressed her palms against her burning cheeks, unable to meet Kagome's amused stare. “Oh, Kagome . . . I don't know . . . .”

“Sango . . . how many times has Miroku rubbed your butt since you've met him?”

Sango shook her head miserably, staring at her hands that had dropped into her lap. “I don't know . . . too many to count?”

Kagome giggled. “Well, if he can rub your rear that many times, then you can and should get him back, especially if he won't kiss you.”

Sango sighed. “Till I ask,” she grumbled.

Kagome sighed, too. Trouble was, she didn't have much better ideas, as far as teasing Miroku. Back home she always tried to put off Houjou, and here . . . well, InuYasha was completely different. “Are there things you do that make Miroku react like he wants to kiss you?”

Sango bit her lip and frowned. “He likes it when I lean over his shoulder . . . .”

“Anything else?”

Fidgeting uncomfortably, Sango avoided Kagome's gaze as she shrugged. “There've been a few times when I've leaned against him when we were traveling on Kirara. But those were accidental.”

Kagome raised her eyebrows. “Why does it have to be accidental?” she asked innocently.

Sango's eyes grew wide, huge, as her hands flew back to her cheeks again as she shook her head quickly. “Oh, no, Kagome . . . I can't! I couldn't! It's . . . He's houshi-sama!”

Kagome stood up and grabbed a towel to wrap around herself before she stepped out of the tub. “Sango, do you want that kiss?”

Sango swallowed hard and finally nodded.

“Then make him earn it.”

Sango narrowed her eyes as she frowned in deep thought. “Earn it, huh?” She sighed and slowly lifted her gaze to meet Kagome's. She opened her mouth and closed it a few times, as though whatever it was she wanted to say was difficult. Kagome wrapped her hair in another towel as she waited for Sango to speak. “Have you ever . . . ?” She shook her head slowly, ducking her head as color tinted her skin again.

Kagome grinned. As uncomfortable as she might be discussing InuYasha's kisses, Sango really needed some help, and she really didn't have to say _who_ she had kissed . . . . She knelt on the floor next to her friend. “Yes, I have.”

Sango repeated the open-mouth, close-mouth gesture. “Is it . . . worth it?”

Kagome didn't answer right away but she could feel heat infusing her face. Sango looked slightly reassured. “Yes.”

Sango shrugged and sighed. “ _Really_ worth it?”

Kagome smiled as fleeting wisps of emotion came back to her. InuYasha wasn't anywhere near, and she felt as though he was there with her, holding her . . . . “It's . . . beautiful.”

Sango finally smiled, too. Suddenly she turned thoughtful as she stared at Kagome. “Have you kissed InuYasha?”

Kagome's smile vanished. She grabbed a tee shirt and busied herself getting dressed, stalling for time and wondering how to avoid Sango's question.

Sango gasped. “Kagome! What happened to you?”

Pulling the shirt over her head, Kagome blinked in confusion as she met Sango's frown. “What do you mean?”

The exterminator pointed at Kagome's chest. “Those cuts. They look deep.”

Kagome made a face. The scratches still stung a little but really weren't a big deal. “I got hurt last night. They're nothing. I'm fine.”

Sango didn't look convinced as she dug into Kagome's bag for the first aid kit. Ordinarily Kagome would object but since she'd rather keep Sango from resuming her prior line of questioning, she figured that letting her friend tend the wounds she refused to let InuYasha see would be the lesser of the two evils. She took the antiseptic cloth that Sango extended and pulled her arm into her shirt to use it, silently thanking the fates for sidetracking Sango before she'd had to answer.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha shivered slightly in the cold water with a mutinous scowl on his face as he wondered just how long it would take Kagome to figure out that he'd drowned Shippou in the tub . . . .

“Was it _nice?_ ”

“Shut the hell up, lecher,” InuYasha snapped as Miroku grinned at him.

“Tell me, InuYasha . . . how warm is that `miko's aura'?”

InuYasha growled. Miroku should have taken the warning. He laughed instead.

“You ought to consider a longer than two-second kiss next time,” Miroku added for good measure.

InuYasha's growl escalated into a snarl. The monk still didn't get the hint.

` _I'm gonna kill that runt . . . as soon as I find out where he ran off to hide_ ,' InuYasha fumed. Having just gotten into the tub—in his blessedly empty room—InuYasha had made the fatal mistake of telling Miroku that he could come in since the monk had wanted to talk to him about Katosan. Shippou had come in, too, and that was where it all went downhill, as far as he was concerned. InuYasha still wasn't sure how it had even come up, since he had been busy shaking water out of his ears, but Shippou had blabbed to the monk about the quick kiss he had witnessed earlier, and, well, it had snowballed from there.

“Have you stroked her—?”

“ _Shut the fuck up!_ ” InuYasha bellowed. Then again, maybe he'd start by sharpening his claws on the monk before he hunted down that damned kitsune.

“'Monk-in-Pain'-red looks good on you, InuYasha.”

Snarling became what could only be described as a very loud bark. Miroku relented—for a moment. “All right, InuYasha, you win. I'm finished bedeviling you . . . can I tell Sango?”

InuYasha shot to his feet. Miroku was faster, and InuYasha wasn't out of the tub before the monk was gone. Seconds later, he heard another door slam, and he grimaced, waiting for the gales of female laughter and hurrying out of the tub and into his clothes before they burst in here to tease him even more.

It never came.

With a heavy sigh, he grabbed Tetsusaiga and sank down in the furthest corner from the door, arms wrapped around the weapon, and a dejected look filtering into his gaze.

Servants came and removed the tub. InuYasha didn't move. Slowly the sounds of the castle died away as the inhabitants found the escape of sleep. The fire burned low in the pit. InuYasha didn't move. Letting his forehead fall against the wall, he whined low.

He wanted to go to her, to Kagome. He just . . . couldn't. Knowing that perverted monk, he'd already dealt a lifetime's worth of teasing on her, too, and it was all his fault. ` _What was I thinking? I shouldn't have let her kiss me, especially in front of that damn kitsune . . . just wait till I get my claws on him . . . ._ '

He sighed. It wasn't Shippou's fault. As much as he hated to admit that, even to himself, he really didn't have anyone to blame but himself. He'd done the one thing he had never wanted to do to her. Because of his carelessness, because he let his guard down, he had left her open to ridicule . . . .

Images came back to him, half-forgotten yet never really out of his heart . . . the things that he'd heard as his mother had played in the castle garden with him . . . things that tore at him worse now then they had at the time. He understood what they said when he hadn't quite grasped it at the time . . . .

` _Youkai lover!_ '

` _Stay away from her! She's one of them!_ '

As much as he hated the memories, the taunts and hatred from the humans echoed in his head, threatened to overpower him even as he fought to lock them away once more. ` _Mother . . . why did you do that to yourself? How can I ask Kagome to suffer the same?_ '

She'd never forgive him. ` _Baka! What was I thinking? She trusts me to protect her, and I . . . damn it!_ '

InuYasha sighed, closing his eyes against tears that he refused to let fall. ` _Kagome_.'

 

 

 

 

 


	37. Forces of Nature

Kagome stared at the door and heaved a heavy sigh. She'd been trying to do her homework. She'd fallen behind in the last few days, and since she was well-rested, she figured there was no time like the present to make up for it. Trouble was, she couldn't keep her mind on the math when there were other more pleasant things she could be thinking about . . . . Belly lurching in an altogether delicious way, Kagome rolled onto her side and pressed her hand against her stomach, willing herself to concentrate on her work. ` _Knock it off, Kagome . . . you're as bad as Miroku . . . . Well, maybe not_ that _bad . . . yet._ ' With a frown, she willed the door to open, hoped that InuYasha would walk through it. Maybe it was presumptuous of her, but she thought InuYasha would come see her, at least to make sure she was sleeping. ` _It was all that talk about kissing—that's why you're still awake_.'

Turing her attention back to her calculus book, Kagome tried again to focus on her schoolwork. ` _This is all InuYasha's fault. If he hadn't kissed me, I'd be able to pay attention to this . . . ._ ' She sighed but smiled at her musings. Math somehow paled in comparison to the hanyou . . . . ` _And you kissed him first, Kagome. Convenient, how you forgot that, huh?_ '

Smile fading, something else crept into her brain. For some reason, Katosan's words kept running through her mind. ` _I'm afraid that it was a mistaken lead. I apologize for your having come all this way for nothing. However, since you are here, there was something I did wish to discuss with you—alone_.'

What did he want? Kagome bit her lip and tried not to think about that. InuYasha would tell her, if he wanted her to know. ` _But I don't trust Katosan . . . he wants_ something _. . . he wants something from InuYasha . . . but what? InuYasha doesn't have anything except Tetsusaiga, and full youkai can't even touch that without the barrier repelling them . . . ._ '

Yet the more she thought about it, the more positive she was. ` _I know_ _Katosan wants something from InuYasha . . . I wish InuYasha would just listen to me . . . ._ '

At the soft knock on her door, Kagome sat up and closed the book she wasn't studying. “Come in,” she called as her stomach erupted in odd little tremors. The only person who would come to her room this late was InuYasha, and if he didn't want to talk, she supposed that'd be all right, too.

Kagome gasped as an instant and thick rush of trepidation that coursed through her, and she could feel every muscle in her body constrict and tighten as Katosan stepped into her room and closed the door behind himself. The sense of foreboding cast a pall over the waning disappointment that it hadn't been InuYasha, after all, and she tucked away that emotion, unwilling to give Katosan any advantage since he obviously had a reason for seeking her out in the middle of the night . . . .

The imposing inu-youkai stared at her for long moments before finally breaking into a rather nasty smile as Kagome slowly stood up. A quick glance to the side proved what she had known. Her bow was definitely out of her reach. Collecting as much calm as she could muster, Kagome lifted her chin and stood her ground as the youkai stalked toward her. “Rather late for a social call, isn't it?” she asked, careful to keep her tone as neutral as she could.

“This isn't a social call,” Katosan agreed. “But I think you knew that.” Kagome didn't disagree, and she didn't take her eyes off the youkai as he knelt on a cushion by the fire pit. “Sit with me, Miko. I'd like to ask you a few questions.”

Kagome hesitated but sat back down. Whatever game the youkai was trying to instigate was lost on her but aside from screaming at the top of her lungs for InuYasha, there wasn't anything she could do but play along with Katosan . . . for the moment. “What do you want to know?”

He watched her for several seconds, hooded eyes glowing in the half-light like a predator stalking his prey, as if he were trying to back her into a corner. “They call you a curious one. They say you are a miko of magnificent power, of power unrivaled in our world. They say that you disappear from time to time to a place where none can find you . . . is this true?”

His eyes were cold, calculating, staring at her as though he was trying to probe the deepest recesses of her mind for answers. Kagome schooled her features, willed her expression to remain blank, and she took her time in answering, choosing her words carefully. Why did she feel like everything she said would be weighed, measured . . . tallied? “I don't know about my so-called power, but you've heard right. I do come from a very distant place.”

“And if he asked, would you accept InuYasha-sama as your mate?”

She felt the heat of embarrassment wash over her features at his question. Swallowing hard she shook her head. “That's none of your business,” she remarked, controlling the tremor in her voice, the telling waver that would give away too many of her feelings.

Katosan didn't like her evasion. The way his eyes narrowed to slits proved it, and when he spoke, there was an underlying growl behind his words. “Why do you toy with InuYasha-sama?”

“Toy with him?” she echoed incredulously, drawing back as though he had struck her. “I don't—I never—I'm not—”

“Avoidance will avail you nothing, Miko,” Katosan cut in coldly, punctuating his assessment with a single raised eyebrow. “Why do you hold him back?”

“InuYasha doesn't think so.”

Katosan shook his head, letting loose a nasty little chuckle, more of a sneer than what the sound should have been. “InuYasha-sama is inebriated with your very presence. You weaken him; you cast him in the role of the pathetic hanyou. You convince him to be satisfied with mere table scraps when he could have the feast. Do you know what I speak of?” He clucked his tongue, his eyes filled with anger so intense that it seared her as Kagome sat, mute in her outrage. “Of course you don't. InuYasha-sama wouldn't tell you, precious miko . . . do you know why?”

Kagome's voice faltered. ` _Because he . . . ._ ' She shook her head, unable—unwilling—to finish that thought, even to herself. “He's my friend.”

“Your friend?” Katosan chuckled maliciously. He hadn't missed the moment of uncertainty, the break in her controlled facade. “Hasn't he told you? Hanyous have no friends—but they can have power.”

Kagome clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Struggling for a measure of self-control, knowing that Katosan was deliberately baiting her, she felt the edges of her calm slip away. “That's not true. InuYasha doesn't care about power. He cares about his friends and—”

“Doesn't he?” Katosan hissed, pinning her with a fierce glower, turning on her, leaning forward, forcing her back with the air of distain that resonated from him. “Then I was mistaken? He never sought to gain strength for his precious Tetsusaiga? Tell me, Miko . . . if it came down to it, what would he choose? You? Or Tetsusaiga? Don't answer that if it hurts you.”

“He wouldn't choose,” she said, her tone even, flat. His question hadn't shocked her, as she supposed was his intent. Anger rose up, the indignation that anyone would ever think that she'd ask InuYasha to make such a choice. She'd never asked him to choose between Kikyou and her. She certainly wouldn't ask him to choose between Tetsusaiga and her. There wasn't even a choice to be made.

` _The fang, forged for InuYasha's father in order to protect his human mother . . ._ _._ ' Myouga's words came back to her, and in them, she found the strength to repel Katosan's hostility.

She wanted to claw Katosan's eyes out. She held herself back because . . . because InuYasha trusted him. “I wouldn't ask him to do that.”

“Yet you ask him to put his life in danger time and again to collect the shards of the Shikon no Tama that _you_ so haplessly broke. How many times has he nearly died for you, Miko? For your mistakes?”

And how many times had she thought the same thing? She winced at the deadly accuracy of Katosan's words. “InuYasha wanted the jewel, too. He wanted to help me collect them.”

“Why?” he demanded.

Her voice rose as frustration and regret gnawed on her mind, preyed on her own feelings that she had somehow been the cause, not the solution . . . that she was responsible for bringing back the Shikon no Tama when she had been dragged into the well so long ago. “To restore the jewel!”

Katosan leaned closer as his voice lowered. As though he knew that she was crumbling, as though he could smell her own doubts. “ _Why?_ ”

Kagome swallowed hard, dropping her gaze away from Katosan. “To become full youkai,” she whispered, staring at her hands. She shook her head quickly as another memory shot to the fore, the pathetic image of InuYasha, standing in a pond as he frantically fought to wash the scent of blood off his claws. “But he didn't want that . . . after he transformed . . . he didn't, so we went to Totosai, to make Tetsusaiga lighter . . . .”

“And why would he do that?”

“Because . . .” she said, confidence growing in her tone even as a lingering doubt remained. “He didn't want to transform anymore.”

“ _No!_ ” Katosan growled, slamming his hand on the floor in front of her. Kagome jumped back and winced. “Because—of—you.” Unable to hold back the small whimper that escaped her, Katosan sat back, anger apparently appeased for the moment, and he smiled as she blinked, staving back the sting of tears that burned the back of her eyes. “So you see? You ask him to choose all the time.”

“You're wrong,” Kagome finally said quietly as she lifted her eyes to lock with his again. Defiant, determined, she refused to let him further intimidate her. “I don't ask him to choose. Any choices he's made were his own. I've never expected anything from him.”

“Hmm.” Katosan intoned, a tepid smile twisting the corners of his lips, indulging her speech as he pondered his words. They were long in coming. “It might interest you to know that InuYasha-sama is the rightful heir to Musashi.”

Kagome couldn't control the surprise that registered on her features. “ _What?_ ”

“That's right. All of it. Ironic, isn't it? The very thing that weakens InuYasha-sama—that is, his human blood—is the same thing that gives him the right to claim what should be his . . . . Does it interest you?” Katosan's gaze shifted to the side, toward the door, eyes narrowing as though he was looking beyond the walls of the room into the hallway beyond. He turned his head back, glare locking with hers again in their silent battle of wills. “Now, Miko, knowing this . . . _now_ would you take InuYasha-sama as your mate?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure out what he was trying to prove even as she fought down the blush that threatened to seep over her skin. “I've already told you. That's really none of your business,” she answered tightly.

“Hmm. He is the son of the Inu no Taisho, whom I proudly and humbly served. I swore long ago that I would uphold the honor and protect the lives of the family of the Inu no Taisho, so you see, Miko, it is absolutely my business.”

“I . . . I think you should leave,” Kagome whispered, wrapping her arms over her stomach to protect herself from Katosan's animosity.

Katosan shook his head. “Brazen. You are in my home, Miko.”

Kagome slowly stood. “Then I will.”

He flicked his wrist, waving away her bravado as though it was wasted on him. “Sit down. Your show of righteous indignation is wasted on me.”

She didn't comply but she didn't gather her things, either. “Why don't you tell me what you really want, Katosan? What is it you really want from InuYasha?”

Katosan rose to his feet, towering over Kagome though he maintained his distance from her. “I simply wish to see InuYasha-sama get what he deserves, Miko. No more, no less. Is there something wrong with that?”

“That sounds ominous,” she countered as the need to protect InuYasha rose in her heart again.

Katosan nodded once, sensing something from her that she couldn't quite define. “It isn't meant to be, I assure you. Your desire to shield InuYasha-sama is commendable, even if it is misplaced.” Deliberately, Katosan turned away for a moment then sighed as he faced her once more. “Or is it that you do not realize that he lives to protect you?”

“I don't _need_ to be protected,” she replied. InuYasha's protection was something she loved, something she allowed him to do because it was something he needed from her. Hadn't she always known that? One of the first things she had come to understand about him was this. Almost an obsession for him, InuYasha _needed_ to be her hero, her guardian. But to be told that she couldn't protect herself by a man like Katosan? Kagome stood her ground. “He wants to protect me.”

“He'll protect you into his grave, and you'll let him, won't you?”

“You don't know anything about us,” Kagome countered softly. “I wouldn't let InuYasha die, not for me, not for anyone.”

“And you think you can stop him?”

“What do you want?” she asked in a whisper, her hands rising to rub her temples as she fought off the deadly accuracy of Katosan's words.

“I told you. I want to see InuYasha-sama reclaim what should, by rights, be his.” He stared at her for long moments, assessing her, looking into her eyes as though he really was trying to read her every thought. “You aren't going to try to convince me that you wouldn't be happy if InuYasha-sama reclaimed Musashi? Think of it: the castles, the servants . . . a place to keep warm in the winter? A home where you and he can raise your pups? Isn't that what all bitches want?”

“Why would I try to convince you of anything? The only person's thoughts I care about are InuYasha's, and he knows the truth.”

“Does he?”

Kagome shook her head slowly, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the youkai. “You don't know a thing about InuYasha or about me or about what either of us wants.”

“Don't I?” he hissed suddenly, eyes flashing with the light of his anger, his rage. They reached out to burn her. She backed away from the flames. “You come from a place where you have it all, don't you? A princess, perhaps, so to speak? Are you so like Izayoi-sama? She gave everything away for the Inu no Taisho, and she was very happy—until he died protecting her and InuYasha-sama. The pup never knew his father. He was barely given a name, did you know? Izayoi-sama was reviled, ridiculed, ostracized . . . until her own father killed her.”

Kagome covered her mouth with her hands, unable to hide her absolute horror at the past, so eloquently described to her. An intense sadness washed over her, and Kagome knew in that instant that Katosan spoke truth. But she also knew in her heart that Izayoi _was_ happy with InuYasha's father, and that their love, their happiness, no matter how short-lived, had been worth anything else that she'd had to bear.

“And this is the life you wish to mimic?”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “I . . . .”

“If InuYasha-sama were to take Musashi . . .” he trailed off then chuckled. “Power breeds respect, Miko. Perhaps, if he did this . . . perhaps your story would end differently from theirs.”

With that, Katosan turned on his heel and strode to the door. He paused and turned back, staring at her for a long minute before he spoke again. “The choice is yours, of course. Well, yours and InuYasha-sama's. I would sincerely hate to see the two of you . . . dead.”

Kagome watched the youkai leave her room as quietly as he had come. She dropped to her knees on the futon as her body started to tremble. Unsure what to make of the altercation she'd just taken part in, she keened softly, mind reeling as the torrent of late emotion crashed down on her. She'd stood her ground and yet still came out lacking. Somehow Katosan had managed to twist, to convolute, every good and beautiful thing she'd ever believed about InuYasha . . . and about herself.

With shaking hands, she fumbled with her calculus book, trying to shuffle it into her backpack. Her hands were so unsteady she dropped the bag, spilling things out over the floor. A whimper escaped her as unaccountable rage washed over her at her own show of clumsiness.

Shoving the things back into the bag, Kagome's hand stilled as her fingers closed around the flat red stone. ` _The wishing stone . . . InuYasha . . . ._ '

She held it against her chest, willing her body to stop shaking. ` _I . . . I need . . ._ .'

Without a second thought she pushed herself to her feet and ran out of the room, leaving her things scattered over the floor.

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

InuYasha strode across the room and threw open the rice-paper covered window, letting his head fall back as his eyes closed against the consuming sense of being lost, the knowledge that he was being controlled by things he could neither see nor touch. The frigid air ripped over him, soothing him yet leaving him raw, bleeding in places that would never be seen.

` _Mother . . . ._ '

` _Kagome . . . ._ '

Anger and sadness mixed, combined deep inside into an ache that nearly drove him to his knees. He'd overheard too much, more than he ever wanted to know about things that may have best been left forgotten. He gripped the windowsill, digging his claws into the wood as it splintered, cracked. It wasn't enough.

He hadn't known how she died. He'd never really thought about it. He'd been too young, too removed, and, in the end, too oblivious . . . . ` _He killed her_ _, Mother_ _. . . ._ '

And Kagome . . . . Kagome, with her smile and her heart and her life . . . The one life that meant more to him than anything else in the world. She was proof to him, that there was true beauty in the world, that there were things that were fighting for. Kagome had always showed her feelings, no matter what they were. He'd never met anyone quite like her, and he knew that he wouldn't ever meet another again. She was the clean water that broke over the falls. She was the spring rain that washed away the winter's stale air. She was the earthquake that split the rocks. She was everything in the world to him, a force of nature too free to be contained with a heart that was big enough to accept a pitiful hanyou who didn't want to need her.

Yet still . . . . Was Katosan right? Would taking Musashi change anything at all? Would anything? Would that make it all right? Would it give him the strength to hope for something that he wasn't sure he dared to hope for?

The soft scrape as the door slid open. InuYasha whirled around, gaze flying to glare at the intruder. Kagome stood, framed in the blackness of the hallway behind her, glowing with the warm light of a dying fire. Eyes bright with unshed tears, and even across the distance, he could feel her trembling. With a small sob, she flew to him, hurling herself against him, gripping him tightly, as though she was afraid to let go.

` _Let go, baka! Now, before you destroy her!_ '

He shook his head, unwilling to listen to the voice that echoed in his ears. His arms tightened around her, and he sank to the floor, holding her close, closer than his heart. No words were spoken. As if they both knew that the silence was a fragile thing, he held her, rested his cheek against her temple, tried not to think about how perfect she felt to him, snuggled against his chest, tried not to think that if he died in that moment, at least he would die with her in his arms . . . .

“Hold me,” she begged in a whisper.

He sighed, squeezing his eyes closed. If she never knew how much it cost him to answer, he'd be grateful. “Keh.”

Burying her face deeper into his haori, she gasped out another small sob. “I . . . I can't feel you.”

He squeezed, drawing her more firmly against him, tightening his hold on her, lending her the strength that he didn't have to share and yet giving it to her, because she needed it from him. “Better?”

“Yes.” She choked back a whimper. “InuYasha?”

“Hmm?”

“Don't let me go.”

` _Musashi . . . Mother . . ._ _Kagome . . ._ _._ ' He tried to breathe. His chest felt as though it had been wrapped in iron bands. “Never . . . I . . . I can't . . . .”

So much, too much . . . yet the only word that he understood was Kagome. She believed in him, she trusted him, and if giving her what she needed meant he had to do something he never wanted to do . . . . ` _Think of it: the castles, the servants . . . a place to keep warm in the winter? A home where you and he can raise your pups?_ ' Was Katosan right? Was this the thing that he had to do, to make himself worthy enough for her?

Gradually her body stopped shaking, her breathing settled, her heart stopped feeling as though it was trying to leap from her into him. She never let go, her hold never diminished. Was she as afraid as he was, that if they let go of each other that they would both be lost?

She tilted her head back, staring at him in the darkness. The moonlight filtering in the window illuminated the darkness of her eyes casting them in a blue hue that illuminated her face. “I brought this back to you . . . I forgot I had it . . . if you still want it . . . .”

She held up the wishing stone. He took it. “How do I use this thing?”

Her smile was tentative, hesitant, and radiant at the same time. “You hold it, close your eyes, and make your wish.” She pulled it out of his hand and closed her eyes as she held it against her heart. When she opened her eyes again, they were bright with tears. She dashed her hand across them and handed the stone back.

He stared at the blood-red stone. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to make the wish, not yet. Kagome sensed his reluctance and sat up, turning his face with her gentle fingers. “You don't have to make a wish now, if you don't want to. I just wanted you to know that you can when you're ready.”

` _You're my wish, Kagome . . . don't you know?_ ' He pulled her close again as she wrapped her arms around him once more. Silence fell again but this time, it was more comfortable even if his thoughts were not. Clearing his throat as though to interrupt the quiet, Kagome lifted her head again and waited for him to speak. “I'll take you home,” he finally said.

She sighed and shook her head. “You heard, didn't you?”

He didn't need clarification. He knew what she was asking. The things he'd overheard . . . they were too painful, too raw, too close.

She leaned away to stare at him, a thoughtful frown darkening her eyes, marring her brow. “I don't want Musashi, and . . . and I don't think we're like your parents in that way. You're you, and I'm me, and it doesn't matter to me, any of it . . . what makes me happy is being with you.”

` _Don't you see, Kagome? It_ does _matter . . . It matters to me!_ ' Wanting to reach out, to touch her face, to kiss her, and yet he held himself back. The need to protect her from himself warred with the need to pull her closer. In the end, he did nothing.

She shivered. InuYasha forgot he'd left the window open. With a sigh, he let go of her. She stood, wrapping her arms around herself as he closed it then grimaced when he realized his fire had also burned itself out. “Come on. You're cold,” he said, grabbing her hand and Tetsusaiga and hustling her over to the door.

In her room, she broke away and made quick work of cleaning up the mess she'd left as he dropped a couple more logs on the fire and sank down on her futon, staring at the flames. Katosan's words echoed in his head. ` _Power breeds respect . . . ._ ' it was true, he realized. He'd silenced those who would taunt him with his claws, and later, with Tetsusaiga.

` _She said she doesn't care about Musashi, and maybe she doesn't . . . now . . . but what about later? I can't give her the things she has in her time . . . how am I supposed to compete with all that stuff?_ '

Kagome crawled around behind him, rose up on her knees. Fingers gently toying with his ears, he closed his eyes and blanked his mind, deliberately concentrating on her touch alone, the feel of her hands. He stretched out on her futon, and she didn't stop.

It didn't occur to him that he hadn't asked to see her diary as an exhausted sleep descended to claim him.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	38. Goodbye

“Don’t you think they’re acting strange?”

“Oh, so you’ve noticed that, as well? It isn’t just me?”

Sango shook her head and put her hand on Miroku’s back as she leaned closer to whisper in his ear. “Nope, it’s definitely strange.”

“Hmm.”

Shippou hopped up, landing in Miroku’s arms. “Why aren’t they talking?”

InuYasha stared straight ahead, purposefully avoiding Kagome’s constant looks. The confusion on the young miko’s face was a painful thing to see, and Sango flinched in commiseration for her friend. “We’ll be back at the village today. How long do you think this will last?”

“This is all my fault,” Shippou remarked with a soft sigh then smacked himself in his head with his small fists. “Baka, baka, baka!”

Miroku petted the kit’s hair. “Don’t blame yourself, Shippou. I don’t think this has anything to do with you.”

Honestly, Miroku had no idea what might have caused the rift between the two. It had been a long time since he had sensed this great of a divide between them, and it worried him as much as it distressed Sango and Shippou.

After he’d spent some time teasing the hanyou he had come to consider as close as any real brother about the kiss that Shippou had witnessed, Miroku had found Shippou hiding in his room. His tail stuck out from behind the futon, and Miroku hid his smile as the kit’s tail shook precariously. He sat down on the futon and waited for Shippou to come out of hiding.

“ _He’s going to_ kill _me!” Shippou wailed as he peeked up at Miroku. Tears stood in the child’s eyes, and the monk tried hard not to chuckle_.

“ _He won’t kill you,” Miroku assured him. “He might thump you, but I doubt he’d go so far as to kill you. Kagome wouldn’t let him, anyway, even if he wanted to_.”

 _Shippou sighed unhappily. “I didn’t think he’d get so mad_.”

“ _Well, you know InuYasha. He always thinks he is about to be attacked. He gets a little defensive, and while we might all know how he feels about Kagome, he might not realize it, himself, yet, or he might not understand how much Kagome cares for him. Just try not to draw his notice for a few days, until it all blows over_.”

 _Shippou made a face as he hopped off Miroku’s lap and stretched out on the floor to spin his top. “He’d have to be thick not to know how Kagome feels,” he remarked. “I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it?_ ”

“ _Perhaps it is easier for us to see because we’re not involved,” Miroku observed. “In any case, you’d do well to stay away from him, at least for now. Can you do that?_ ”

 _Shippou sighed again and nodded, looking miserable the entire time. Miroku understood. As much as InuYasha and Shippou fussed at one another—normally over Kagome’s undivided attention—Shippou did care for InuYasha, and having the hanyou upset with him directly just didn’t sit well with the child_.

“Have you tried asking Kagome what happened?” Miroku asked Sango.

The youkai exterminator nodded. “Yes, of course I have. She won’t say.”

Miroku was surprised. “I thought Kagome told you everything.”

“Not everything, apparently,” Sango remarked. “Have you tried asking InuYasha?”

Miroku shot Sango a knowing glance. “And you think that I’d have any better luck getting him to talk if you can’t get Kagome to do the same?” Shippou hopped out of Miroku’s arms and, with a very determined squaring of his little shoulders, the kit bounded ahead. “I . . . don’t think that is a good idea,” Miroku commented with a wince.

Sango nodded. “I agree.”

“InuYasha . . .” Shippou began, hopping onto the hanyou’s shoulder. “Are you mad at me?”

InuYasha didn’t answer. For that matter, he didn’t even glance at the kitsune. Kagome veered off into the trees toward the sound of running water. The group stopped to wait for her while she filled the water bottles.

“Did you have a fight with Kagome?” Shippou tried again. “You better not have made her cry, baka!”

Still no response. Shippou growled and hopped onto InuYasha’s head, thumping his little fists against the hanyou’s ears. “ _Are you listening to me?_ ”

“Why isn’t InuYasha beating on him yet?” Sango asked, eyes widening as she watched the debacle unfold.

“Oh, Shippou . . . .” Miroku said with a grimace, anticipating the impending thumpage. “I can’t watch this . . . .”

Sango shook her head. “I’m going to go see if Kagome needs help.” She started away then turned back to point at the kitsune who was still busy hammering his fists against InuYasha’s head.

Miroku heaved a sigh and nodded once before Sango turned and strode off after the miko. He watched as she disappeared into the trees.

‘ _The trouble with this idea_ ,’ Miroku thought as he slowly approached the two males left behind, ‘ _is that InuYasha is liable to attack me instead of Shippou . . . and he hits hard._ ’

“InuYasha . . . you have a kitsune on your head,” Miroku remarked, careful to remain out of direct arm’s length from the volatile hanyou.

InuYasha glanced at him but didn’t answer.

“You know, if you needed to talk to someone about something, I’m a fair listener.”

“Keh.”

‘ _Well, at least he made a noise_ ,’ Miroku mused. “Shippou, why don’t you go make sure Kagome and Sango are all right?”

Shippou didn’t look like he was going to comply. With a sigh, he finally hopped down and ran off toward the stream. InuYasha rubbed his ears and squatted down, feet apart, hands on the ground between his knees—which meant that he really was upset about something. It wasn’t the first time that Miroku had noticed that the more troubled InuYasha was, the more likely he was to fall back on his instinctive dog-traits.

“You and Kagome have been quiet on this trip,” Miroku commented, careful to keep his tone as neutral as possible. “Did the two of you have a disagreement?”

InuYasha’s gaze narrowed as his head turned very slowly to face him. “No.”

“Calm down, InuYasha. I wasn’t trying to imply that you were to blame for anything . . . . Was it a misunderstanding?”

InuYasha’s eyes lowered again and his ears flattened against his head.

Miroku leaned back against a stout tree trunk, stabbing his staff into a snow drift beside the path. “Kagome cares for you. You know that, right?”

InuYasha didn’t respond but Miroku could tell the hanyou was at least listening. “I want to offer you some advice, and you can either take it or leave it. There aren’t many in the world with Kagome’s heart. She judges people on what she sees on the inside, not what they look like on the outside. It’s a rare and precious gift she has, and I think you see it, too. I’d hate to see you lose her because you think she sees something other than what she truly does when she looks at you.”

“It ain’t what _she_ sees when she looks at me,” InuYasha admitted softly. “It’s what _I_ do.”

“And what do you see?”

InuYasha sighed and shook his head. “It don’t matter. I can’t change it.”

“Do you want to?”

“Keh. Leave me alone, monk. I didn’t ask for your advice.”

“No, but you need it.”

“What are you going to do? Whip out your Ofudas to use on me? They don’t work. Fuck off, will you?”

Miroku snorted. “Yeah, in a minute. Just stop feeling sorry for yourself, InuYasha, because that’s not helping anything. You were going to use the Shikon no Tama to become human for Kikyou, right?”

InuYasha glowered up at him. “So? Kagome wouldn’t ask me to do that.”

“You’re right. She wouldn’t. My point is, you’d change into something you’ve never wanted to be for Kikyou, but you can’t change yourself into something you want to be for Kagome?”

“Like what?”

Miroku jerked his staff out of the snow and pushed away from the tree before stepping over to kneel down next to InuYasha. “Like someone who sees the same person inside you that the rest of us do.”

The monk stared at him for a long moment then got up and stalked off toward the stream, leaving a scowling hanyou sitting in the snow.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“Kagome? Are you all right?” Sango asked as she stepped out of the foliage next to the small stream.

Kagome’s shoulders shifted slightly before she turned to face her friend with a falsely happy smile and a telling brightness in her eyes. “I’m fine! Shouldn’t I be?”

Sango took one of the empty bottles and uncapped it. “If you told Miroku or even InuYasha that, they might believe you.”

Kagome sighed. “It’s that obvious?”

“Depends on who you ask.”

Kagome stared at her hands as a worried frown drew her eyebrows together, brought a certain sadness to her eyes that was accompanied by a very long and frustrated sigh. “Katosan told me that InuYasha is the rightful heir to Musashi.”

Sango’s eyes widened as she blinked in surprise. “Musashi? How?”

“His mother was the daimyo’s only child. InuYasha should have inherited it when her father died. Anyway . . . I think . . . I think InuYasha is going to try to claim it.”

“Why would he do that? He doesn’t want Musashi, does he?”

Kagome shook her head then shrugged, looking just a little sadder with every second that elapsed. “No, and . . . .Sango . . . I think he’d do it though. I think he’d try.”

Sango bit her bottom lip thoughtfully. There was still something that Kagome was leaving out, a crucial piece that would make the entire scenario better fit together. “What aren’t you saying?”

Again Kagome shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, but . . . promise me? If I go home . . . if InuYasha tries to go alone? Promise me that you and Miroku will follow him? He can’t do it alone.”

“All right,” Sango agreed slowly. Staring at her friend in the noon-day sunshine, it fell into place. Sango gasped. “He’s doing it for you, isn’t he? That’s what you’re afraid of.”

Kagome didn’t confirm or deny Sango’s question. She didn’t have to. The truth was written in her troubled eyes. She looked around, as though she feared they’d be overheard, before she reached out and touched Sango’s hand. “I have a feeling,” Kagome said quietly, “that if he goes alone—” she paused, swallowing hard, squeezing her eyes closed for a moment, gathering her courage to finish her sentence, “—if he goes alone, he won’t come back.”

“Kagome, if you’re that worried, then find a way to stop him.”

“I’ve tried! I told him that I don’t care about Musashi . . . .” She drew a deep breath, steadying her voice, reigning in her emotions. “Just take care of him, if I can’t stop him.”

Sango nodded again. “We will.”

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“I’ve got to do this.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Kagome—”

She shook her head, glaring at the stubborn hanyou as she hitched the backpack over her shoulder. “No, InuYasha. You don’t have to do this. You know you don’t. You just don’t want to believe it. Katosan wants you to, and you’re playing right into his hands.”

“Keh! Katosan has nothing to do with it, wench.”

“Keh!” she shot back, “Katosan has everything to do with it.”

She sighed and sat on the edge of the well as she let the bag fall from her shoulder to dangle from the strap, flipping her legs over the ledge, ready to drop in, to cross the five hundred year warp back into the world she knew.

Suddenly, she couldn’t look at him. Her heart felt as though it was being crushed in the tight fist of dread, and the dread had the face of Katosan. Closing her eyes and pushing away the flames of panic that enclosed around her, she opened her eyes, stared into the gaping blackness below her. “Goodbye, InuYasha,” she whispered, not trusting her voice to remain steady.

The all-too-real image of InuYasha’s body, sprawled on the bloody mound of dirty snow flashed through her mind again, forcing the softest of whimpers from her soul as she struggled to force it away. ‘ _He’s going, and I can’t stop him . . . he’ll . . . InuYasha . . . ._ ’

She leaned forward to drop into the darkened well. As badly as she wanted to throw herself against him, to let him hold her, even just another moment longer, to have him sigh against her cheek, she felt as though a part of her was already starting to die with an aching intensity that made her want to scream. ‘ _Kiss him, Kagome! Just one more time . . . just to remind him that he has a reason to fight, even if you don’t want him to go!_ ’

But she couldn’t. If she kissed him now, if she touched him now, she’d never be able to let go, and as much as she wanted to tell him how frightened she really was, ultimately, this wasn’t her decision to make. She scooted forward on the ledge, prepared to drop into the darkness. He stopped her. She stared down at his arms, wrapped around her, his face buried in her hair. “Kagome . . . .”

She shook her head but relaxed against him, just for a moment. Then she drew a deep breath and pulled his arms open, dropped them away from her. “I’ve got to go.”

“Kiss me.”

Again she stopped, poised to drop into the well. His voice, the desperation, the need, the ache of it cut her to the quick. Again she refused to look back at him, and again she braced her heart with her will alone, before it crumbled, before she died. “I can’t.” She shook her head, hoping against hope that he couldn’t see how badly it hurt her, to tell him this. “I’m sorry,” she choked out just before she dropped into the well.

 

 

 

 

 


	39. Cause and Effect

InuYasha stood, stunned, staring down into the well as the pink light that signaled the opening of the time warp died away. ‘ _She didn’t . . . she just . . . what the . . . oh_ hell _no!_ ’ he blustered to himself as his expression darkened to a near-murderous scowl. “She’s not getting off that easily!” he growled as he hurtled the side of the well and descended into the flash of pink light.

‘ _Wait till I find her! If she’s not still standing in the well-house when I get there, I swear I’ll sniff her out and . . . and . . . and . . . oh hell, she’ll be_ so _sorry! Always telling me she wants me to tell her what I’m thinking, and then when I do, she says she_ can’t _kiss me! Sneaky wench!_ ’

His feet hit solid surface on her side of the well. “ _Kagome!_ ” he bellowed, his voice echoing off the sides. He ignored the ache the sound inspired as he pushed off the ground and flew out of the hole.

She wasn’t in the well-house. She wasn’t in the courtyard. All the shrine windows were closed, so he couldn’t smell exactly where she was but her scent led to the back door, and he stomped after her.

“Hey, InuYasha!” Souta greeted as InuYasha slammed through the door. “I thought Kagome said you weren’t coming with her this time.”

“I’m not staying,” InuYasha answered as he kept moving.

“Did you forget something?”

“Keh! Yeah . . . I forgot what a sneaky wench your sister is.”

Souta looked confused but he turned back to the video game he was playing and shrugged. “Kagome’s in her room,” he called after the hanyou, who was already half-way up the stairs.

InuYasha didn’t stop as he neared Kagome’s door. Raising his fist in time to slam it wide open, the door hit the wall with a nice loud crash and bounced back. InuYasha was well past that, though, and the door slammed closed again.   He didn’t have a chance to relish the incredible noise his entrance had created.   He didn’t get a chance to look around the room for the sneaky wench. No, in an instant, the pungent salt of her tears filled his nostrils. A second later, Kagome was wrapped around him, lips on his, fingers buried in his hair, a low moan ripped from her throat as she kissed him as though her life depended on it.

He forgot that he was angry, forgot the frustration of her answer on the other side of the well, forgot that he was supposed to be leaving on a quest, forgot what it meant to breathe. She surrounded him, blinded him, dulled his senses to anything that didn’t have to do with her. She wrapped around his mind as her body molded against his, and if he’d ever fought against his feelings for her before, he didn’t remember it.

                                            

Through the desperation of her mouth under his, he could feel the underlying quake, the trembling of her body. Scorching heat radiated from her, surrounding him in a blanket of warmth, and she offered him her heart as his mind slowed to a crawl. The current of sensation shocked him, the wash of her tears cleansed him as she held onto him. Mind spinning away in the inundation of sentiment, thoughts centering wholly on need, cherishing her as she relinquished control to him, InuYasha growled, and her answer was a whimper. Against his lips she drew on him as one feeling tumbled into the next with such fluidity that he couldn’t tell where one part of him met another.   Thought became tactile, the force of nature that was Kagome, alive in his arms, yielding and soft, yet demanding and harsh.

Her lips trailed to his chin, his jaw, down the arch of his neck, settling on the hollow where his pulse quickened under her lips. He fell back against the wall, needing support as Kagome grew relentless. Drawn to that place, that vulnerable spot, concentrating her attention as he let his head tilt to the side, he whined as she kissed him, moaned as she nuzzled against him, growled low as she acknowledged her control. He whimpered, standing still, allowing her to have his submission, even as he wondered hazily, did she know what it meant, to permit her this? Dragging her teeth against his skin as she sought out his lips once more, he couldn’t help his indistinct wonder, ‘ _Can she feel me trembling under her fingers?_ ’ Hands dropping to his shoulders, she clutched his haori as his mouth claimed hers again. She collapsed into his arms, and he held her, steadied her, offered her the strength she needed even as she fueled his desire to live.

She dragged her mouth away, drawing in a ragged breath, liquid eyes swirling with undiscovered passion as she gazed at him. “I should have done this back there,” she whispered, her tone a caress to his ears. “I should have kissed you and held you and told you that you can’t leave me . . . you can’t.” She let her forehead rest against his chest. “Please, InuYasha . . . this is enough for me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

He sighed. “I’d think you’d be happy to see me claim Musashi.”

She closed her eyes and pulled away from him, taking his hands and dragging him over to the bed to sit with her. “Is it what _you_ want? Would it make _you_ happy? Because it isn’t about me. It shouldn’t _be_ about me. It’s about you.”

He couldn’t help but feel as though there was something that she wasn’t telling him.   She stared at her hands, folded together in her lap, her teeth worrying at her lower lip, and he could smell her anxiety. “Why does it bother you?”

She slowly lifted her gaze to meet his, eyes bright with tears that didn’t fall. “If you go . . .” she trailed off, as tears spilled over, running down her cheeks. InuYasha flinched and reached out to wipe them away as more rose to replace them. She closed her eyes, drew a deep breath. “You’ll . . . I’ve seen it. I can’t be strong . . . without you.”

He pulled her into his arms, against his heart, smoothed her hair as she sobbed.   ‘ _I wanted it for her . . ._ .’

‘ _But she’s never wanted it, either, InuYasha. In your heart, you know that, and she’s terrified that she’ll lose you. Musashi . . . isn’t that someone else’s dream . . . ?_ ’

“Kagome . . . .”

She sniffled and shook her head without looking up. “Don’t say it,” she whispered. “Just . . . will you stay here? Just tonight?”

“Keh . . . will you stop blubbering if I do?” he asked gruffly.

She broke into a watery smile. “Okay.”

He pushed her bangs out of her eyes, kissed her forehead as she held onto his wrist. ‘ _I’d stay with you forever_.’

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“ ‘ _When I told him that I was to marry Takemaru, he acted like he believed it was for the best, that it was what was to be expected. I was, after all, human, and should marry a human. That night, though, as I sat, wrapped in his arms in Goshinboku, I could sense a sadness in him, a tension that hadn’t been there before.   He caught my gaze on him and smiled for me. He didn’t often smile, but when he did, his eyes lit up, his entire face seemed to soften. I think perhaps it was at that moment that I realized that I loved him, and if I ever told him, I can’t remember but I do know I never knew a time when I didn’t know how much he loved me, too._ ’ ”

“Have you read enough yet?” InuYasha grumbled as he flopped onto his back. “You women are too dramatic in your dairies.”

Kagome, who had been in the midst of indulging a romantic vision of InuYasha parents high in the God Tree, frowned and turned to face him, shaking her head slowly with a heavy sigh. “This is the sweetest story, and they’re your parents. You ought to want to hear this.”

“Keh.”

“Just a little more?”

“And what do I get for being bored out of my mind?” She grinned and lay down beside him, wiggling around until she was comfortably situated with her head nestled against his chest. “You move around more than that runt-fox, you know that?”

She opened the diary back up. He stuck his hand in front of the pages. “InuYasha!”

“You never answered my question, sneaky wench. What’s in it for me?”

“Ramen?”

“I get that.”

“Pocky?”

“Keh.”

“Dried potatoes?”

He thought that over then shook his head. “Keh.”

“My new calculus book?”

“Getting closer.”

“I could scratch your ears.”

“Nice try, sneaky wench. That’s for you, anyway.”

“But you like it.”

“Keh.”

“Well, then you tell me. What do you want for it?”

“How about an apology?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “For what?”

His expression turned sulky, and Kagome tamped down the urge to laugh. “For saying that you _couldn’t_ kiss me by the well.”

The urge to laugh died in an instant as an entirely different urge took over. She swallowed hard and hoped he couldn’t hear her heart hammering against her ribcage. “Okay,” she agreed slowly. “I’m sorry you didn’t like that I said I couldn’t kiss you by the well.”

“You call that an apology?”

“Why? Does it sound like one of yours? Now move your hand. I gave you what you wanted.”

“Keh! You’re even sneakier than I thought!” he growled as his hand dropped—to cover her eyes.

“InuYasha!” she complained as she tried to pull his hand away.

“What? Don’t like it? I gave you what you wanted,” he shot back.

She stopped struggling and turned her face toward him. The effect was marred by his hand over her eyes, she was sure. When he chuckled, she was positive. “How about this: if you let me read a little more to you, I’ll kiss you.”

“Keh. Somehow I think that’s more for you than it is for me, too.”

“Oh, _really?_ ”

“Well, if that’s the _best_ you can do,” he slowly drawled. “Before _and_ after.”

He let her pull his hand down from her eyes. “Before and after what?”

“I thought all those books you drag around in bag you live in were supposed to make you smarter, wench. One now, and one when you’re finished, that’s what.”

“Okay,” she agreed easily enough. She pushed herself up on her elbow and kissed him soundly on the cheek. “There. You’ll get the other one when I’m finished reading, and stop flattening your ears. I know you can still hear me.”

“Sneaky wench,” he grumbled as she opened the diary and did her best to ignore his pouting visage.

“ _‘I didn’t see him the next day. He didn’t come for me that night. A melancholy so deep, so encompassing, so hurtful that it pained me to breathe settled on me. All I could think of was that he was gone, and he’d taken my heart and my soul with him.’_ “ Kagome sighed and peeked at InuYasha. Eyes closed and features carefully devoid of any emotion at all, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking as she turned her attention back to Izayoi’s diary. “ ‘ _It was a week to the day when he returned. I was so stunned when I saw him standing on my balcony that I didn’t know if I could believe my eyes. I’ll never forget the way he looked. Bathed in the moonlight, he looked like an ethereal being, a creature of the daylight trapped in the folds of the night. I ran to him, I held him to me, and I kissed him. He told me he’d made a deal with my father. He would turn over Musashi to him in exchange for me. We left the next evening at sunset, after the wedding where I was supposed to have married Takemaru. I married him, instead, and he took me home, to his castle on the cliffs.’_ ”

InuYasha made a show of yawning.

Kagome rolled her eyes and found where she’d left off reading. “‘ _We were happy. He didn’t show emotion often, unless we were alone. Often hard to understand or even a little grumpy, he fought to hide his feelings behind a stoic façade. I knew better. He was passionate. I recall once, a hapless youkai wandered across our path. This inu-youkai should have recognized the Inu no Taisho and should have showed the proper respect. Instead Norimitsu insulted him for demeaning himself to keeping a human, and he nearly lost his life for the oversight. It was only later, after Ryukotsusei threatened my life that I’d ever seen him so livid, so open with his emotions, even if the emotion was hatred. Norimitsu thought to issue challenge instead. Sesshoumaru stepped in and sent Norimitsu fleeing for his life. We weren’t bothered by him or any of his ilk again.   They didn’t dare_.’ “

Slowly, deliberately, the graceful clawed fingers wrapped over the top edge of the book and pulled it out of Kagome’s hands. “H-hey!” she complained. “I wasn’t finished!”

“Keh! You are now,” he replied in his ‘Don’t-Even-Think-About-It’ tone. “Now about that kiss . . . .”

Kagome made a face. “Hmm. The deal was that I could read the diary to you—”

“‘Just a little more’,” he mocked in a high-pitched tone. “And you did.”

“But you took it away before I finished!”

“Reneging on your end of the bargain? Sneaky wench.”

“I never said that!”

“Keh.”

“I didn’t!”

“We ain’t got all night, wench.”

“Hrmph!” She sat up and tried to grab his ear. He caught her wrist and pulled her close, flush against his chest. She gave a half-hearted attempt to free herself.

“You know what you have to do,” he goaded then blinked at her.

“Stop that,” she whispered.

He blinked again.

“I mean it! That’s not fair.”

And again.

“InuYasha . . . .”

“What’s wrong, Kagome? Can’t stand it when I look—” blink, blink, “—at you?”

“Y—You—You’re—I ought to purify you,” she threatened.

“Thought you liked me as a hanyou.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I thought I did, too. Go figure.”

His gaze narrowed but his eyes were bright. “And you say _I_ pout?”

“Okay, so you know about the blinking. What’re your weaknesses?”

“Keh! I ain’t got none, wench.”

“None?”

“Not one.”

“ _Really_.”

“Keh. Only you pathetic humans have weaknesses like that.”

“You’re half-pathetic-human, so you’ve got to have at least one or two weaknesses.”

“And you think that if I did I’d tell you? That’s a weakness right there.”

Kagome sighed and sat up. “So . . . I could, oh, I don’t know . . . _cry_ , and you wouldn’t care?”

He eyed her for a moment, and she hid her smile as he sniffed for any traces of tears. “Keh. That’s not a weakness. That’s just _annoying_.”

“You have a weakness for having your ears rubbed, I know it.”

“Keh! I do not.”

“ ’Monk-in-Pain’-red looks good on you, InuYasha.”

“Keh!”

“So you didn’t like it the other night when I rubbed your ears until you fell asleep _without_ my diary?”

A devious look entered his expression, one that Kagome didn’t like at all. “Where _is_ that diary, Kagome?”

“Why?” she asked cautiously.

“Hmm? Isn’t that obvious? I want to read it, wench.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “It occurs to me that you obviously must have more than just the one weakness, being a pathetic human, sneaky wench.”

Sitting up and swinging his legs off the bed, InuYasha reached for the huge backpack. Kagome hugged him from behind and tried to pull him back. “Oh, wouldn’t you know it? I must have left it behind!”

“Keh.”

“In fact, I might have accidentally kicked it into the fire . . . yeah, in the cave!”

“You’re a really bad liar, Kagome . . . did you know?”

She let out a small cry as she nearly slipped over his shoulder and onto the floor as he leaned even further forward. He caught her, dragging her over and directly into his lap. “Falling for me, wench?”

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him. ‘ _Beautiful_ ,’ she thought vaguely, watching the gold twist around itself. In the depths of his gaze was a silent yearning, a question that he didn’t dare ask her out loud. The flecks of gold tinged with silver undulated, pulsed, giving off a light, an energy of their own. Fire erupted deep inside her, shot through her body with the ebb and flow in his stare. She reached for him, tried to touch him, too close to the burn that was InuYasha. He caught her hand, held it against his heart.

“Kagome . . .” he whispered as his mouth dropped over hers. Her eyes fluttered closed as an explosion, a landslide of sensation pushed her forward, down the spiral into the abyss where words didn’t matter, into a place where he was the only thing she knew. Her grip tightened in his hand, holding him close as his lips danced over hers. He was her weakness, the vulnerable part of her that she didn’t try to hide. Everything about him whispered to her, spoke to her, called to her. She sighed as he nibbled at her jaw, tremors rolling through her as he licked at her ear. He growled softly, the sound mingling with his curious rumble. She smiled as he fell back, dragging her with him, refusing to surrender his hold on her.

He let go of her hand, wrapped his arms around her as he rolled, pinning her against the bed as his mouth dropped to her throat. He let his fangs rake against her as her head fell to the side. Her fingers tangled in his hair as she held him to her. His body strained against hers, the barely contained ferocity drove him nudged her onto dangerous ground. She could feel the power that flowed through him as it culminated, manifested in the way his fingers shook as he touched her, and every inch of her that he brushed against tingled with a million different fires that burned, raged, singed straight to her heart.

The rumbling in his throat soothed her even as his touch, his kiss, his breath on her skin goaded her further down the unexplored terrain. The exhilaration of being carried on his back through the forest as he leapt into the skies was dim in comparison to the feel of his dominance, and the shocking realization that she didn’t mind it at all. She wanted this, wanted him. His hands cradled her face as he moved upward to her lips. She gasped he kissed her deeply, carefully, with a tenderness that he rarely showed, a gentleness touched her deeper than a physical caress ever could. He was the light that led her, the hand that reached for her, the strength that she needed when she felt as though there was nothing left inside her.

Want became an insistent ache, a necessity she couldn’t express, an aspiration she couldn’t articulate. The need to touch him, the burning in her body that begged for something that she knew he felt, too, threatened to consume her. Moaning softly against her lips, he murmured words that she couldn’t understand. The waves of yearning crested on the tide of longing as heat collected in a central current that flowed through her. She reached for him, seeking the warmth of his skin as she tugged at his haori, his undershirt, feeling the flesh that welcomed her, he leaned into her touch. His growl was a primitive sound, tinged with longing, the combination sending more pulses of heat rocking through her.

He rose up on his elbows, stared into her eyes, his expression mirroring the way she felt inside. The distinct bond that she felt when she was near him—he felt it, too, and he stared at her with such wonder, such awe, as though she could hear his thoughts as clearly as she would have if he had spoken out, his fears, his indecisions were a palpable thing, a hurtful thing, a thing she didn’t want him to suffer any longer. “You’re beautiful, to me,” she whispered.

He opened his mouth to reply. She braced herself for the self-deprecation, the return to the InuYasha who hid behind his gruff exterior to force others back, to close himself away, and sudden anger that he would do that to her now surged through her. But he dropped his forehead against her shoulder, nuzzled against her neck. “Keh. You talk too much, wench,” he rasped out, his voice pleading and raw, rough and gentle, the paradoxes that were InuYasha.

“And you don’t talk nearly enough,” she replied gently, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him to her as she sheltered him. “Will you tell me why you want to take Musashi?”

He sighed and shifted so that he was flat on his back before he pulled her into his arms again. Her hand slipped under his undershirt to rest over his heart. His body trembled under her, and she smiled. “I don’t want to. I _have_ to.”

“But if it isn’t for you then you don’t need it,” she argued. “InuYasha . . . you can’t be so careless. Don’t you know? Can’t you understand?”

“You’re afraid I’ll die? Keh! I can’t be killed so easily. You know that.”

“I know you believe that,” she agreed softly as she pulled away from him, sat up and fought back the feeling of being completely alone. “I’m not afraid that you’d die. It’s deeper than fear . . . I see it in my mind, I’ve seen it in my dreams.” InuYasha, lying on the blood-soaked mound of snow . . . . She closed her eyes against the image, willing it away and steadying her voice. “If you go after Musashi . . . .” Drawing a deep breath, refusing to cry when the tears made her throat ache, her eyes burn, her nose tingle, Kagome shook her head. “That’s why I couldn’t kiss you when you asked, InuYasha. I can’t watch you do that.”

His frustration was thick. Radiating off him in waves, Kagome could almost see it. He sat up too, hands gripping the edge of the bed as he leaned forward. “What’s the difference?” he demanded. “I’ve fought hundreds of youkai at one time. I’ve never backed down from a fight. You’ve never asked me to before. Why the hell now?”

“You’ve always fought to protect. You’ve never been the aggressor,” she answered softly. “There’s a huge difference, can’t you see?”

He didn’t respond. When she dared a peek at him, she saw why. He was staring at his claws with something akin to horror. She closed her eyes, reaching out, drawing him into her embrace. ‘ _You didn’t think of it that way, did you, InuYasha?_ ’

Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her waist, pacifying himself with allowing her to hold him as she stroked his hair, rubbed his back, rested her cheek against his hair.

They stayed that way for a very long time.

 

 

 

 

 


	40. Enter the Exterminator

“I feel a bit foolish.”

“Let me see.”

“. . . Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

A heavy sigh designed to express complete reluctance on his part. “It’s a little . . . snug.”

Sango grinned to herself about the monk’s grumblings. “Snug is good. Father said that loose clothing only gets in the way.”

“Your father was obviously never a monk.”

“Come out here and let me see if it fits you.”

“It fits just fine. It fits a little _too_ well, if you ask me.”

With another heavy sigh, Miroku came out and stood silently, waiting for Sango’s approval. Cheeks flushed and looking distinctly out of his element, Sango gave him the critical once-over. The dragon youkai’s hide that she’d used to fashion his armor fit like a second skin, and she admired the way the tiny black scales gave off an iridescent glow in the fire-lit room. Like his monk robes, Sango had chosen to use the same purple color on his elbow, knee, and shoulder pads, and in all, she had to admit he looked good— _very_ good. “What do you think, Kaede?” Sango asked to the old miko.

Kaede looked up from her task of smashing dried herbs. Eyes widening as she stared in surprise at the monk, Sango hid her amusement behind a delicate cough. “. . . Can ye breathe in that, Miroku?” Kaede remarked before glancing at Sango and resuming her chore.

Sango got up and approached the uncomfortable monk. She brushed her hands over his shoulders, making sure the hide wasn’t pulled too tightly over him as she frowned thoughtfully. “It looks like a good fit,” she finally said as she stepped around to inspect his back. Her hands shook slightly, and she only hoped the monk didn’t notice.

“A good fit?” he echoed. “Sango—”

“A youkai exterminator must have armor,” Sango cut in. “And dragon armor is better than most because it repels fire.” Pressing her hand against her heart, she stepped back. ‘ _Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea,’_ she mused. _‘Concentrating on battling youkai when houshi-sama is wearing that?_ ’ She made a face. ‘ _Where’s your discipline, Sango? He’s the same houshi-sama as he was before . . . just wearing tighter clothing . . . that’s all . . ._.’

Miroku turned his head and frowned when he caught her troubled expression. “Sango? Is something wrong?”

She felt instant heat infuse her skin, and she had trouble meeting Miroku’s gaze. “Wrong?”

A sudden glow erupted in his eyes, and he grinned. “You look as thought something is disturbing you . . . would you like to talk about it?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him quickly. “There’s nothing disturbing me . . . just fine.”

Miroku nodded slowly as Sango came back around. “Good. However, I was having a bit of trouble with this piece . . . would you mind showing me how to put it on?”

She stared at the belt he extended to her. Also fashioned from dragon-youkai hide, it was made to hold his weapon as well as his mask. She took it from him and swallowed hard as she leaned forward, reaching around to loop the hide around his waist. She tied it quickly and stepped back, admiring her handiwork before she noticed the chagrined expression on his face. “Miroku?”

Shippou looked up from the picture he was coloring and shook his head.   “Don’t worry, Sango. Miroku’s just mad because he lost his chance to touch your rear when you were hugging him.”

“I wasn’t hugging him!” Sango insisted quickly.

“I’m not mad!” Miroku scoffed.

Shippou rolled his eyes and returned to his picture.

“Well, I’m going to put my robes on over this,” Miroku said as he hurried to retrieve his regular clothes.

Sango couldn’t help the appreciative smile that tugged at her lips as she watched him go. ‘ _I didn’t realize he looked . . . like that_ ,’ she thought as her smile widened. Then she sighed. Somehow, the image he left in her head made her that much more nervous . . . .

The bamboo curtain that hung over the door rattled.   Sango turned to see who had entered. “InuYasha? We were worried when you didn’t return last evening . . . . Is something wrong?”

The hanyou sank down on the floor holding Tetsusaiga in his arms. “Where’s the lecher?” he asked, ignoring Sango’s questions. Miroku re-emerged, tying the robes closed. InuYasha frowned as he watched Miroku fiddling with the knot on his shoulder. “Why are you getting dressed just now?” he asked suspiciously.

Shippou hopped up and bounded over to land on InuYasha’s knee. “Where’s Kagome? Where’s my pocky? Did you make her mad again?”

“Keh! She’s taking a test, I ate your pocky, and no she ain’t mad.”

“He seems a little too calm, if you ask me,” Miroku whispered to Sango as the kitsune and hanyou traded minor insults.

“I agree . . . do you think something happened?” Sango whispered back.

“I smell my pocky on you!” Shippou hollered, thumping his fists into InuYasha’s thigh.

Sango’s mouth dropped in shock as InuYasha dug into his haori and pulled out two boxes of the treat before thumping the kit’s nose with his index finger. “Here, runt, now get lost.”

Shippou grabbed the boxes and bounded back to his artwork.

Suddenly, InuYasha sniffed and made a face. “Why do I smell a dead dragon youkai?”

“I was using a pelt to make something,” Sango remarked, hoping that InuYasha wouldn’t notice anything odd in her answer.

InuYasha’s eyes narrowed with suspicion but he was cut off when Miroku cleared his throat—loudly. “So I take it you accompanied Kagome to her time yesterday?” Miroku asked, carefully keeping his tone neutral.

“What of it?” he countered defensively.

“Just wondering,” Miroku quipped.

“InuYasha . . . will you be leaving?” Sango questioned. She had told Miroku what Kagome had said but neither of them had mentioned that they knew of InuYasha’s plan to the hanyou.

“That’s why I came back,” InuYasha said as he dragged his claws against the floor. “We found the book I was after, but I can’t bring it back here. It can’t pass through the well.”

“You found it in Kagome’s time?” Miroku asked.

“Yeah.”

The monk nodded. “And because it still exists here, you can’t bring it through the well.”

“Something like that.”

“I see.”

Sango wondered why Miroku suddenly looked apprehensive and a little worried but was sidetracked by InuYasha’s next statement.

“Anyway, I have to read it, so I’m going back.”

“Why do you have to read it? What sort of book is it?”

InuYasha snorted. “It don’t matter what sort of book it is. Myouga insisted that I read it before we can purify the Shikon no Tama.”

“How long will the two of you be gone?” Sango asked.

InuYasha yawned and stretched then stood up again. “Dunno . . . Just keep an eye on things till we do.” He strode toward the door but stopped before stepping outside. “Oh, and, uh, if Katosan comes back to try to get you to leave with him again? Tell him to go to hell.”

The bamboo mat dropped back into place with a whisper. Sango turned her incredulous gaze on Miroku, who still looked distinctly troubled. “Houshi-sama?”

The monk shook his head slowly, lifting his gaze to meet Sango’s as he forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Something wrong?”

Sango frowned. “What is it?”

Miroku sighed. “Just something InuYasha said. I’m sure it was nothing.”

Sango didn’t look reassured but she let that drop when something else occurred to her. “Was it just me or did he seem . . . content?”

Pondering her assessment, Miroku slowly nodded. “He did, didn’t he? Almost—dare I say it? Happy?”

Kaede chuckled. “I’ve said it before: Kagome is a strange child. But if anyone can heal the wounds in InuYasha’s heart, it would be her.”

“Well, he _did_ let her kiss him,” Shippou remarked.

Sango’s mouth dropped open. “What? When?”

Miroku sighed. “Kagome kissed him at Katosan’s. Apparently they forgot they had a young audience.”

“Wait . . . you both knew? And neither of you told me?”

Shippou hopped up and brought Sango some of his pocky as a peace offering. “Miroku told me not to tell.”

Miroku flinched as Sango’s glare infiltrated his skull. “I told you not to _tease_ ,” he corrected.

“So does that mean that InuYasha doesn’t want to reclaim Musashi?” Shippou asked.

“It would seem that way,” Miroku commented, glad that the kitsune had redirected the conversation.

“I thought InuYasha trusted Katosan,” Shippou remarked.

Sango stared at the fire with a thoughtful frown. The feeling that Kagome hadn’t told her everything was back, as it had been yesterday when they were traveling. For that matter, it had seemed odd at the time, that InuYasha had been in such a hurry to leave, too. “Maybe we should watch the two of them a little closer,” Sango mused. “They’ve both been acting a little odd, wouldn’t you say?”

Miroku nodded slowly though the strangely troubled expression was back in his gaze as he stared at his hand where the kazaana used to be. “All right, we’ll do that as soon as they come back.”

Sango started to ask Miroku what was really bothering him. But a villager rushed into the hut, gasping for breath as he struggled to speak. “InuYasha! Where is InuYasha?”

Miroku got to his feet and offered Sango a hand in assistance. “He’s gone. What’s the trouble?”

The villager shook his head. “Near the well . . . youkai . . . .”

Miroku ripped off his robes before he grabbed his staff and sickle before darting out the door as Sango hurriedly shed her clothes to reveal her youkai exterminator clothes.

They took off on a transformed Kirara in deference to expediency and arrived at the clearing around the Bone Eater’s Well in time to see a lumbering boar youkai rooting up the ground near the well. “Hurry!” Sango called down to Kirara. “That boar is going to cave in the well!”

Miroku hopped off the fire-cat youkai and ran at the beast, letting the sickle fly through the air. Practicing on small items on poles was one thing, and something he’d gotten decent with. A moving beast, however, was quite different, and even though the boar was clumsy and slow, it still moved. Miroku jerked the chain to bring the weapon back to him.

Lifting its head, the boar youkai snorted and lumbered forward, gamboling toward Miroku as the earth shook with each step.

“ _Hiraikotsu!_ ” Sango hollered as the huge boomerang sailed past his head. It caught one of the boar’s massive tusks and broke it off. The boar screeched in anger and pain and altered its course to intercept Sango.

Miroku pulled an ofuda out of his sleeve and hurled it at the creature. The agonized squeal made him cringe, and for the moment, he had to be thankful that he wasn’t InuYasha. That sound was enough to make his ears ring. He could only imagine what it would have done to the hanyou. As it was, the pause gave Miroku the opening he needed.

With a grunt, Miroku heaved the sickle. The blade embedded itself between the boar’s eyes atop the smoldering ofuda. He jumped onto the youkai’s back and jerked on the chain with both hands, pulling back as he leaned with all his strength. The blade sliced up and wrenched free as the youkai’s scream died away. Miroku, breathing hard, dropped off the carcass and caught the sickle, pausing long enough to wipe the blade clean on the dead youkai before straightening his back and looking around for Sango.

She stood beside Kirara with Hiraikotsu slung over her back. Staring at him with an odd mix of respect and awe, there was a hint of something else in her gaze that gave Miroku pause; something warm, something beautiful. “Sango?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t seem like she’d even heard him. He leaned in a little closer. “Sango?”

She blinked suddenly, her cheeks pinking as she forced her gaze away from him. “We’d better get back to the village,” she remarked as she climbed onto Kirara’s back. “Kaede’s probably waiting for word . . . .”

Miroku stuck the sickle into his belt and crossed his arms over his chest. “I think I’ll walk,” he replied softly.

Sango considered that then hopped off Kirara. “Maybe it would be a nice afternoon . . . for a walk.”

 

 

 

 

 


	41. Musashi

“How about over there?”

InuYasha picked up the sofa and moved it according to Mrs. Higurashi’s directions. She stood back and eyed the piece with a critical stare and finally nodded her approval.

“That’s good . . . but would you mind helping me move the chair?”

Careful not to scowl, InuYasha obediently lifted the aforementioned chair. “Where do you want it?”

Mrs. Higurashi tapped her chin thoughtfully and pointed to a spot just slightly left of where it had been before. ‘ _Keh! Now I know where sneaky wench gets it_ ,’ he thought as he set the chair into place.

“Wonderful! Thanks so much, InuYasha!”

“Keh.”

Mrs. Higurashi patted his arm as she hurried off. “Come! While you’re here, I’ve been meaning to rearrange the guest bedroom so I can clean under the bed . . . .”

Rolling his eyes, he followed. ‘ _This is your own fault, baka. You just had to ask if she needed help with anything since Kagome was too busy to know you exist_.’

He stomped up the stairs after Mrs. Higurashi, part of him sincerely hoping that he was making enough noise to remind Kagome that he was still here, after all.

‘ _And you owe her anyway. She gave you ‘money’ so you could take Kagome on that date, remember? Anyway, she’s not asking you to do anything you can’t do. Living in a house filled with pathetic humans, she can’t just do this stuff any old time . . . ._ ’ That thought made him smile despite his irritation.

Besides, performing menial labor gave him time to ponder the two most important topics on his mind. Firstly, how to get his hands on Kagome’s diary again so he could find out what other ‘weaknesses’ the sneaky wench was hiding. Secondly, how to avoid hearing more of his mother’s diary. For some reason, listening to Kagome read the entries in that one hurt.

Two diaries . . . how to avoid reading and still being able to read the other . . . . InuYasha hefted the double bed off the floor while Mrs. Higurashi swept under it with the horrendously loud vacuum cleaner.

‘ _This isn’t something new, you know. Just figure out what she wants, and trade her._ ’ He made a face. She liked his ears. She didn’t seem to mind kissing him, either. He nearly whimpered as memories of their shared kisses assailed him. ‘ _I don’t think I’d mind if she wanted to trade for that_ ,’ he allowed. That was, if he could get her to pay any attention to him at all. He snorted. He hated her exams, he really did.

Mrs. Higurashi cleaned and rearranged the room in record time, or so she said. By the time he’d set the last piece of furniture in place, he wasn’t any closer to figuring out either of his dilemmas, and he sighed. Mrs. Higurashi said she’d bring up a snack tray for Kagome as she hurried down the stairs. InuYasha headed down the hallway to Kagome’s room to see if she was finished with her exams yet. He cautiously stuck his head in the room so that he wouldn’t disturb her if she wasn’t finished. She wasn’t at her desk. Glancing around the small room, he finally found her only curled up on the bed, fast asleep.

The first thing he thought as he stared at her was that she was beautiful. The second thing he thought was that her diary was in the bag next to her bed.

It didn’t take long for him to decide that the chance to read her diary was well worth any sort of irritation she might make him suffer for later.

It surprised him that her diary was right on top in the bag. He stared at it with a thoughtful frown. As much as he wanted to look for those ‘weaknesses’ of hers, he also wondered what she’d written in there recently, too, especially if she had written anything at all about kissing . . . .

He glanced over his shoulder as he leaned against the bed and, satisfied that she was still sleeping, he carefully opened the book.

‘ _I came home alone today. InuYasha is bound and determined that he wants to take Musashi. On the one hand, I can understand this. On a purely personal level, it is something that should have been his. But I can’t see him being happy as the great overlord. I can’t see him happy in the confines of the traditional society of the time. It’s one of the things that set him apart. He is a free spirit. It would kill him, to take that freedom away from him_.

‘ _He followed me home, though. He was unhappy because he asked something of me that I just couldn’t do at the time. Maybe it was underhanded of me to ask him to stay with me while I was crying. He hates it when I cry. I never tried to use that to my advantage. But he did agree to stay. I just wish he’d agree to read his mother’s diary. It was written for him. There are things in there, I’m sure, that were meant for him to hear, things that might make a huge difference to him, if he only knew_.

‘ _I’ve tried to talk him into reading it. I’ve read some passages to him. Still I wonder, since I know he loved her, if it is sadness that keeps him from reading it or if it is that he fears the pain that the memories might bring him. I’d be happy to just be here for him, if he asked me to. He doesn’t have to share the whole story with me, if it was too much for him. But sometimes just knowing that you’re not alone helps_.

‘ _I just can’t help but see parallels. Whether he realizes it or not, he’s so much like his father that it is almost frightening. Maybe there were things early on that made his mother think that InuYasha might one day need this book. Maybe she just worried that the future wouldn’t be kind. In the end, I don’t think it matters as much why she wrote the diary as it does that she did, and that she went to the trouble of making sure that InuYasha could read it when the time came. She must have loved him more than anything else in the world_.’

InuYasha sighed, rereading Kagome’s last sentence in that paragraph. ‘ _Mother . . . was that why? Because . . . because you loved me?_ ’ His ears drooped as he stared at the page. ‘ _She never asked anything of me. Even as a pup, she never expected me to do anything that she thought would make me unhappy . . . Mother . . . ._ ’

He swallowed the small lump that swelled in his throat and made himself read the rest of Kagome’s entry.

‘ _Of course, who could blame her for adoring him? Even if he made himself sick on ramen broth, or called her a pathetic human, or even sneaky wench . . . even if he didn’t know how to write poems and wasn’t much for talking about his feelings. Even when he shows how much he cares about someone through his actions instead of with words, I think that’s okay. I think that the people who really matter to him hear exactly what he is trying to say just fine_.’

‘ _Kagome . . . ._ ’

He closed her diary and let it fall back into her bag before he turned around and leaned on the side of the bed, staring at her sleeping face with a small smile. When he dared to think of his life in the years to come, it never seemed to remain the same. No matter where he ended up, no matter where he chose to be, the one thing that remained constant was that Kagome was always there beside him.

“InuYasha, here’s that snack,” Mrs. Higurashi said as she set a small tray down on the desk. She stepped over to gaze down at her sleeping daughter with a gentle smile. “Her exams must have been exhausting.”

He nodded and watched as Mrs. Higurashi left the room before turning his attention back to the sleeping girl. ‘ _Kagome . . . you never have asked much of me, have you? Just that I read Mother’s diary, even if it hurts me._ ’ He sighed, gaze shifting to the nightstand, and the diary in question. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached out, touched the cover.

He picked it up, brought it to his nose.   The cover smelled old, dusty, like a thousand other old books, like things locked away only to be forgotten. He opened it, flipped through the pages. His mother’s handwriting shocked him. After so many long years, the handwriting—the same that he remembered her using to teach him how to read—to see it once more . . . That hurt. Her scent permeated the pages of the diary. As she wrote in the book, as her hand had brushed the pages, the smell of her still lingered. A warmth, a sense of comfort that he hadn’t felt in so very long washed over him. It was the same comfort he now felt with Kagome . . . .

Finding the page where Kagome had left off in her reading, InuYasha spared a moment to let his claws trace over the words his mother had left for him. Closing the book and using his finger to hold the place, InuYasha crawled onto the bed beside Kagome. As though she sensed his proximity, she rolled toward him, curled up to him and sighed in her sleep as he pushed her hair back, kissed her closed eyes, borrowed strength from her before he dared to read.

‘ _Those first years were idyllic. For three years we lived together as husband and wife, as mates, as he called it. There were small uprisings here and there, and some of them kept him away for weeks at a time. But he always returned, and he always told me I was foolish for worrying, that no matter what, so long as he drew breath, that he would always come back for me. It was after one of these battles—a particularly fierce one during which Sesshoumaru was seriously injured—that he started to become a little more reserved, a little quieter, and when I asked him why, he would assure me that nothing was amiss_.

‘ _He still sang to me every night. He bade me always remember this song. He said that it was important, and that, should something happen to him, this song would remind me of him, of us. He said it was the lullaby that his family had passed down over the ages. Sesshoumaru knew it by heart. I should know it, too. Though I had mentioned a time or two that I should like to have a child, he never responded. I think he feared the life of a hanyou. I think he worried that it would be too much to ask of any child. I think he feared telling me the truth of it all. I learned those truths later, and later, I shall tell them to you. But for now, I want to impart to you the most critical information, the things you need to know_.

‘ _One night—on the night of the new moon, as I recall—he told me that he had been thinking, and that, even though he knew that the world wouldn’t understand, that if I was willing, that he wanted to give me a child. For hours he told me things he said I needed to know before I decided. He told me of the ridicule you would undoubtedly face. He told me of the cruelties that both humans as well as youkai would deal you. But he said, too, that because of your mixed blood, that you would have an understanding that few in this world would ever have. You would learn to accept your youkai just as you would learn that possessing human emotions was not a weakness. I was optimistic. I thought that being raised with joy and love, with him and with me would make a difference, and make no mistake, InuYasha. I wanted you_.

‘ _If you are reading this book instead of hearing this from my own lips, then it means that my optimism was indeed short-sighted. For that, child of my heart, I am eternally sorry. I have learned, however, that some things must be, and you, InuYasha, were meant to be. Easiest to say that your father wanted you in case something befell Sesshoumaru. The line of the Inu no Taisho had to survive. I would be lying to you if I told you that was his only reason. Understand that your father rarely told me exactly what was on his mind. But I know now as surely as I knew then that you were the child of his heart. You see, for a hanyou to be born, they must be chosen. Youkai can choose to have children. That is why there are so few hanyous, coupled with the fact that the world is unkind to them. But I have seen it in you, young as you are. You’ve your father’s strength, and often is the time when I wonder if you are him reborn_.

InuYasha closed his eyes, let his mother’s words sink in. ‘ _Chosen? What the hell does that mean? They_ chose _to do this to me? To make me an outcast? To make me less than nothing? To make me—_ ’

The overwhelming desire to tear the diary to shreds flooded over him. He sat up, cracked his claws, ready to rend the bindings, ready to leave it in dust with the rest of the bitter memories.   Anger and resentment coursed through him, and as he raised his claws, Kagome sighed in her sleep.

His gaze fell on her, his hand stopping in mid-air. She smiled slightly. He wondered what she was dreaming, to bring that look of contentment to her features so easily. “Inu . . . Yasha . . .” she mumbled as her smile grew brighter, and he blinked in surprise.

‘ _To make me the one that Kagome . . . love_ s?’

A curious calm, a feeling of complete acceptance, a quiet fulfillment settled over him, and he lay back. Staring at the diary, he started to smile. ‘ _Mother_ . . .’ he thought as he stared at the worn cover, ‘ _thank you_.’

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha landed on the ground outside the well, eyes narrowed as he cautiously sniffed the air and brandished Tetsusaiga before him. ‘ _There’s been a youkai here . . . and a helluva lot of blood . . . ._ ’

“Can I come up yet?” Kagome’s voice drifted out of the well.

Satisfied that the area was safe, InuYasha sheathed Tetsusaiga and leaned over the side to catch her hands and pull her out of the Bone Eater’s Well. “Don’t let go!” she said with a giggle.

“Keh! Have some faith in me, will you? Woo—oo—oops!”

Kagome squealed as InuYasha’s hands loosened for a moment then tightened again. “You’ll pay for scaring me like that, Dog-boy!” she threatened as she giggled again.

“Keh! You can’t hurt me, sneaky wench,” he shot back.

He pulled her out of the well. She swung her legs over the side and shot him a sidelong glance before throwing herself against him. Ordinarily it wouldn’t have done much but since he was busy looking around again, she managed to catch him off-guard. Miko and Hanyou rolled across the snow a few times. Kagome was the first to recover, and she took full advantage of the situation to straddle InuYasha’s chest as she leaned forward to capture one of his ears.

“Say you’re sorry,” she insisted as she barely touched the tiny hairs at the base of his ear.

“Keh!”

She touched the hairs again. “Waiting.”

“Keh!” he insisted again but couldn’t contain his soft whine as he tried to jerk his head away from her.

“Come on, InuYasha. Just two words.”

His whine became a low growl. “Sneaky wench!”

“Wrong two words.”

“Keh!”

“That’s only one.”

“Damn it!”

“Try again.”

Suddenly he stopped struggling. His eyes brightened as he stared at her. Kagome felt her heart thumping wildly in her chest. “Kiss me,” he whispered.

“Those . . . aren’t the right ones, either,” she pointed out as she lowered her lips to his anyway.

“But . . . they . . . worked . . . .” he mumbled between kisses. “Inu . . . Yasha . . . Two . . . Sneaky . . . wench . . . none.”

She leaned away, eyes bright with amusement. “ _Really_.”

He grabbed her around the waist and pushed her to the side before rolling so that they’d switched positions. Leaning in for a quick kiss, InuYasha grinned unrepentantly. “InuYasha— _three_ , sneaky wench still nothing.”

“Sneaky wench doesn’t agree,” she argued, yanking him back down with her fists wrapped in his haori. “Sneaky wench wins, too.”

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Miroku held a finger to his lips as they walked through the forest. “I swear I heard something,” he whispered to Sango.

Sango nodded. “But there’s been no sign of youkai activity around here since the boar you killed.”

Miroku grabbed Sango’s hand as they carefully crept down the path. They did the rounds around InuYasha’s Forest every day to make sure that there wasn’t anything dangerous. Today was just like yesterday. Nothing. Still, he could have sworn he had heard _something_.

They stepped out of the trees into the clearing near the Bone Eater’s Well. Sensing nothing, Miroku sighed and turned to face Sango with an apologetic grin. “You were right, I must have been paranoid,” he began.

Sango’s eyes grew wide, and she gasped, slapping one hand over her gaping mouth as she grabbed Miroku’s arm with her free hand and wheeled back around toward the forest path. Cheeks bright red, the exterminator broke into a run until Miroku stopped and pulled her hand. “Sango? What’s wrong?”

Sango’s eyes were still huge, and she didn’t answer out loud. She used the hand that had been plastered against her mouth to point toward the well before grabbing Miroku’s hands and attempting to drag him off again.

Miroku’s interest spiked with the added impetus of Sango’s unorthodox behavior. With a calculated grin, he pulled his hands away and deliberately headed back into the clearing.

“ _No!_ ” Sango hissed, grabbing his arm and trying in vain to drag him back toward the forest before he saw whatever it was that she had seen.

“What? It can’t be that ba—oh my . . . .”

“Houshi- _sama!_ ” she hissed again as Miroku ducked behind a nearby bush.

Miroku pulled Sango down beside him. “Shh! Do you want them to hear us?”

Sango’s cheeks were as red as the hanyou’s clothing. InuYasha was lying in the snow with a very happy-looking miko sitting on his chest. “We shouldn’t be watching this,” Sango pointed out. Miroku noticed with a secretive smile that Sango couldn’t make herself look away, either. “Oh, my . . . did he just . . . _whine?_ ”

“Scoot over,” Miroku said, trying to see through the bare spot in the bush. “Interesting . . . Funny. They don’t seem to notice the cold at all.”

Sango shot Miroku a dark look. “Well, no, I don’t imagine—oh!”

Miroku’s mouth fell open in shock. Kagome leaned down and kissed InuYasha. He seemed to be saying something between kisses though his words were muffled enough that they couldn’t make them out.

They watched in stunned silence as InuYasha pushed Kagome off his chest, but instead of getting up and stomping off to pout or hide—which was what both Sango as well as Miroku half-expected, InuYasha straddled Kagome and returned the kisses she’d just given him. “I don’t believe it,” Sango whispered.

Miroku shook his head slowly as another thought occurred to him. “Sango . . . why aren’t _we_ doing that?”

Sango gasped as her cheeks grew even deeper crimson. “Doing . . . ?”

Miroku waved a hand toward their still-kissing friends. “That!”

A sudden recognition filtered over Sango’s face, and she smiled as he face remained prettily flushed. Eyes bright, mischievous, she blinked at Miroku before answering. “Because, houshi-sama . . . I’ve not _asked_ you to.”

Miroku let her words sink in. With a weak groan, he flopped backward in the snow and closed his eyes as Sango’s soft laughter reverberated in his skull.

 

 

 

 

 


	42. Wary Travelers

"Kagome, is it just me or are Sango and the pervert acting weirder than normal?"

Kagome glanced over her shoulder toward Sango and Miroku. They rode on the transformed Kirara, and when Sango caught Kagome's questioning expression, she flushed slightly and grinned before looking over toward the right—toward the trees. "Yeah, they are," she agreed in InuYasha's ear. "Do you suppose they've finally admitted how they feel about each other?

"Keh. The only thing that lecher likes to feel is Sango's ass."

"Well, you're right, they _are_ acting strange." She sighed. InuYasha stopped suddenly, letting go of Kagome's legs as she slid off his back. "InuYasha?"

InuYasha bared his teeth in a fierce grimace and snarled low. "Stay back, Kagome. I smell vermin."

"What is it, InuYasha?" Sango asked as they stopped, too.

"Youkai," Kagome mumbled, feeling the shift in the air, the ominous presence of a powerful youkai.

"Kagome!"

Kagome's eyes widened in surprise as Rin bounded out of the forest. The ebullient child ran over and hugged her with a delighted giggle. "Rin! What are you doing here? Where's—?"

"Sesshoumaru," InuYasha remarked tightly, hand resting on Tetsusaiga's hilt. "What the hell do you want? Western Lands revolt against you yet?"

Sesshoumaru wrinkled his nose slightly as his gaze flicked from InuYasha to Kagome and back again. "You reek more of this worthless half-breed every time I see you, Miko," he remarked with an air of open distain and completely ignored InuYasha. "Deplorable." He glanced back at his half-brother. "Will you defile her with your half-breeds, baka?"

"Shut the fuck up, bastard! I'm not defiling her with anything!"

"How dare you insult Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken squeaked indignantly, waving the Staff of Heads as a threat.

InuYasha raised his foot against the imp's head and shoved him back.

Sesshoumaru pinned InuYasha with his inscrutable gaze for a moment then looked away, dismissing his half-brother as though InuYasha wasn't worth his efforts. "Call it what you will, InuYasha. The world doesn't need the half-breeds that already exist, let alone more."

"Just tell me what you're doing here."

"I seek someone."

InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back as he assessed his brother for a moment. "Anyone I know?"

"Katosan."

"Katosan? Why would he be in Musashi?"

"Why, indeed?" Sesshoumaru glared at InuYasha for another moment before looking at the little girl. "Come, Rin." He turned without waiting to see if she was following. He stepped on Jaken, flattening the imp as he continued away.

"Goodbye, Kagome!" Rin called back with a jaunty wave as she raced after Sesshoumaru.

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Wait for me!" Jaken hollered as he ran off after them.

"Well, that was as pleasant as ever," Miroku commented dryly.

InuYasha was still bristling. Kagome laid a hand on his arm. He shook her off. "I'm going hunting," he called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the woods.

Kagome sighed as she watched him go before turning to follow Sango and Miroku closer to the stream. "They'll never get along, will they?"

Sango made a face as she started clearing a spot for the campfire as Kagome sat on a fallen log to dig through her bag for the matches. Miroku rolled out one of the tents that Kagome had brought with her this time and set to work. "You know, Sango, I would hate for you to suffer the night's cold," he commented a little too innocently. Sango flushed and avoided his gaze as she carefully assembled some dry kindling for the fire.

"I don't recall _asking_ , houshi-sama," she remarked sweetly.

Kagome nearly choked as she reminded herself that she wasn't supposed to know what that comment meant.

Miroku heaved a sigh and excused himself to search for a rock to use as a hammer.

"Good for you, Sango!" Kagome whispered as soon as Miroku was out of sight.

Sango didn't reply but she did smile despite the flush on her face.

Kagome handed her friend the box of waterproof matches. "Are you okay? I know it's hard for you, to go back."

Sango pursed her lips and patted Kagome's hands. "It's fine. I'm sad when I visit the graves, but I'm not angry any longer. You all have helped me get through the grief, and defeating Naraku helped, too."

Kagome nodded. As much as Sango lost because of Naraku's vile acts, it amazed Kagome that Sango remained such a sweet young woman. It had surprised her, though, when Sango had asked that they all go with her to visit the ruins of the exterminators' village. It was intensely personal for Sango, and they all knew and respected that.

InuYasha had said that he wanted to hunt down Waku. Kagome had been surprised when he had agreed to accompany Sango to her village since he took it as a personal insult that Waku still lived.

"What the hell is your point, lecher?" InuYasha's voice preceded him into the clearing.

Miroku held his hands up defensively. "It was simply a suggestion!"

"Keh!"

"InuYasha?" Kagome asked as she stood up. "What's going on?"

For some reason, InuYasha was blushing. Profusely. "Ask him," he snarled, jerking his head in Miroku's direction.

Sango took the skinned and cleaned rabbit from the hanyou and cast Miroku a nervous glance. "Houshi-sama?"

Miroku looked a little _too_ innocent, in Kagome's opinion. "I simply suggested that InuYasha might be more comfortable in Kagome's tent."

"Listen, you pervert—"

"InuYasha, hear me out. Kagome's still got the Shikon no Tama, right? Wouldn't you feel better knowing you were closer to protect her?"

Sango speared the rabbit and set it over the makeshift spit to cook. "As much as I hate to agree, InuYasha, houshi-sama's got a good point."

"In fact," Miroku went on casually as he started to pin down the tent. "The only way you'd be any closer for her protection is if you were, say, _sitting_ on her."

Kagome had just started to take a drink of water out of one of the bottles when Miroku made that off-handed comment. She choked, spitting water all over InuYasha as Sango gasped. InuYasha's glower narrowed even more as he looked as though he was contemplating how badly Kagome might osuwari him if he killed the monk outright. He must have decided he didn't really care because a second later, he was stalking toward Miroku with the light of mayhem glowing in his eyes.

"What'd I say?" Miroku asked innocently as he backed away from InuYasha.

Sango thumped Kagome's back as she continued to sputter. Suddenly Kirara growled. InuYasha stopped and whirled around, staring back toward the forest in the same direction as the fire-cat.

After one last withering glare at the monk, InuYasha stomped back over to stand in front of Kagome and Sango. "Might as well come out. I know you're there."

Slowly, deliberately, Katosan stepped out of the trees and inclined his head toward InuYasha. "InuYasha-sama. I've been looking for you."

"Sneaking up on someone's campsite ain't a very good idea, is it?"

Katosan shrugged as he walked closer. "I apologize if you thought I was 'sneaking'. I require a word, if you will."

Kagome clutched InuYasha's sleeve. He shot her a quick look to reassure her. She nodded slightly and let go. Watching InuYasha follow Katosan into the woods was unsettling. ' _He'll be fine_ ,' she told herself as she moved over to set up the other tent. Still, she'd feel much better after InuYasha came back.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Have you given any thought to the things we spoke of?"

"The things we spoke of or the things you said to Kagome?"

A fleeting glimpse of surprise was quickly masked as Katosan forced a wry smile. "I didn't mean to upset your miko."

"Yeah, you did. I overheard it."

"Perhaps I did, then."

InuYasha was surprised that Katosan admitted that so easily. He kept his expression blank as he carefully stared ahead at the trees. "Why would you do that?"

Katosan shrugged. "I wished to test her. You feel that you can trust the miko?"

"With my life."

"Touching."

"Why did you come all the way to Musashi?"

Katosan stopped to stare at InuYasha. In the falling shadows of early evening, something about the youkai's manner raised a vague alarm in InuYasha's head. The directness of Katosan's stare probed his head, and InuYasha steeled himself against the mental intrusion. "Have you given any thought to the idea I suggested?"

"About taking Musashi, you mean?" InuYasha crossed his arms together inside the sleeves of his haori. "More than I should have."

"So you've no interest in acquiring what the Inu no Taisho left for you as your legacy?"

"Keh," he snorted as he started walking again. "The only thing my old man wanted to leave for me was Tetsusaiga, and I got that. I don't have any need to have Musashi."

Katosan sighed. "If you'll pardon my saying so, I think you're being foolish and short-sighted."

"Why does it matter to you? Even if I took Musashi, it'd have nothing to do with you. So why?"

"On the contrary. It has everything to do with the honor of the inu-youkai. Surely even a hanyou can see that."

InuYasha shook his head. "The honor of the inu-youkai you're talking about . . . it's supposed to mean something to a 'filthy half-breed'?"

Katosan inclined his head, conceding InuYasha's point. "Perhaps not, to a 'filthy half-breed'. What about to the son of the Inu no Taisho?"

"Keh. It still don't mean a fucking thing."

Half forgotten words came back to him. InuYasha stared at Katosan as Myouga's words echoed through his mind, ' _Katosan was there, when your mother was killed_ . . . .'

"This honor of the inu-youkai . . . where was that honor when my mother was killed? Why were you there, and why didn't you try to save her?"

Eyes dimming as though seeing the past, Katosan stared ahead but saw nothing. "Before he died, the Inu no Taisho asked me to guard over Musashi until such time that you were old enough to do so, yourself. I was there when your mother _died_. She asked me to see that her journal was taken to Sesshoumaru. I was not there when she received her mortal wound. By the time I arrived, it was too late. Sheer determination kept Izayoi-sama alive until I took the journal and until I swore that it would be delivered safely."

"And her diary?"

"I never saw the diary."

InuYasha nodded slowly. ' _He knew . . . He's hiding something_ . . . .'

"Musashi is your future, InuYasha-sama—"

"Musashi is someone else's wish for my future. I don't want it, and I don't need it." InuYasha turned to leave. ' _Kagome . . . she's the constant . . . she's my future_.'

"You're making a mistake."

InuYasha didn't stop walking. "It's my mistake to make."

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Don't you think you should stop teasing InuYasha?"

Miroku glanced at Sango and blinked in surprise. "Was I doing that?"

Sango shook her head. "You know you were."

Miroku grinned. "Maybe a little."

"You're embarrassing him."

"Ah, he looks good in 'Monk-in-Pain'-red."

Sango finished rolling herself up in her blankets in the confines of the tiny tent. "I can't believe you talked him into trading tents."

"It made perfect sense, Sango, my sweet . . . InuYasha only wishes to protect Kagome and the jewel, and he's been sitting right in front of the tent every night, anyway . . . he might as well be comfortable, wouldn't you agree?"

Sango rolled her eyes. He sounded sincere enough. She knew better. "I think you're enjoying teasing him a little too much, houshi-sama."

Miroku didn't deny it. "It's good for him. Builds character."

"I think he's got enough character."

"Surely you can't expect me to pass up this chance, Sango . . . ."

"If you ask me, you're only begging for trouble."

"Speaking of asking . . . ."

"Keep your distance, monk."

Miroku sighed.

In the hidden recesses of her blankets, Sango smiled.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

"Put out that light, wench."

Kagome didn't answer as she held the flashlight in one hand while she worked a calculus problem in her notebook with the other.

InuYasha narrowed his gaze on the miko as he tapped his claws against his knee. "Oi, Kagome, there's a rat."

"Get it, will you?" she mumbled without dragging her attention off the notebook.

"Keh. I'm not your personal rat trap," he grumbled. "It's really fat, too. Sorta looks like Shippou."

"Shippou doesn't look like a rat."

InuYasha sighed and reigned in the urge to whip the notebook out from under her nose. "Keh. That's debatable, wench."

"Hmm. Did you give Shippou the pocky I asked you to take to him?"

' _What the hell? From rat trap to delivery boy? Keh!_ ' InuYasha rolled his eyes. "No, I ate it. All of it. Every last crumb."

She giggled and still didn't glance up at him. "You didn't. You like it but you can't stand to eat that much of it."

Which was true. He did like pocky but he couldn't stand to eat more than a few at a time. Too sweet. Ramen, on the other hand . . . . He reached for Kagome's bag.

"What are you after?" she asked.

"Keh! Don't worry about it."

"If you eat all your ramen now, you'll be sorry later."

He didn't listen as he dug out a cup of the nearly-instant wonder food and crawled out of the tent with a loud snort.

Making short work of adding water to the cup, InuYasha sat down just outside the tent to wait for his food to be ready. Kagome poked her head outside as he started eating. "Are you going to stay out here all night?"

"I was thinking about it."

She sighed. "Suit yourself . . . are you sure?"

"Keh!"

"I put away my book."

"Quiet, wench. You'll give me indigestion if you keep talking while I'm eating."

" _Really_."

"Shh."

"Suit yourself."

InuYasha flicked his ears when she reached up to tweak them. "That'll give me heartburn," he remarked.

"Heartburn? Hrmph."

The tent flap fell closed with a whisper. He heard Kagome shifting around inside the tent, probably rolling up in her thousands of blankets. He sighed then grinned.

"Well, if I'm going to have to be alone all night," she remarked loudly, "then I might as well study some more . . . ."

InuYasha's chin shot up as his ears twitched. He dropped the ramen and the chopsticks on the ground and flopped backward into the tent again.

Kagome giggled as she leaned over to kiss him.

InuYasha grabbed her and held on. ' _InuYasha—four, sneaky wench—zero._ '

 

 

 

 

 


	43. Witnesses

Sango knelt beside the graves and smiled sadly. ‘ _Strange how things change and yet they seem to remain the same here, in this place_.’

“Sango? Do you wish to be alone?”

She glanced up and shook her head as Miroku knelt down beside her. The monk lifted his hand to his face as he offered a silent prayer for the deceased. Then he turned to Sango again and slipped his arm around her shoulders.

Sango patted the graves with a loving hand. “I remember each of these people. I used to talk to them all, every day. I keep them alive in my memory and in my heart, but it just isn’t quite the same.”

“You never forget someone you’ve loved, Sango. You honor them by living.”

She stared into his eyes for several moments, her smile growing brighter. “I think my father would have liked you.”

His sparkling eyes darkened, intensified, as he stared at her. Sango’s heart swelled then lurched. She remembered that look only too well. It was the same one that she’d seen that night, when she had thought he would kiss her. She saw that look every night in her dreams . . . .

Forcing her gaze away, Sango cleared her throat and stood. Miroku sighed softly and got to his feet, too. Wordlessly, the youkai exterminator moved along the rows of graves, stopping to place her hand atop each one as Miroku prayed for them all. At the last grave—the freshest grave—Sango blinked back tears and sighed. “I miss him the most.”

“You suffered for him most because he was the one who needed you most.”

“Did I fail him?”

Miroku sighed and drew Sango into his arms, against his chest. She felt the warmth of his lips on her forehead as he held her, as her silent tears flowed down her cheeks. “You didn’t fail him. In the end, Kohaku chose his path so that you could live.”

She closed her eyes and nodded, her hands tightly clutching his robes. “Thank you, houshi-sama . . . why do I still cry for him? It’s been so long . . . .”

“Sango . . . you weep for him as long as you need to, because you loved him, and if you need me, I’ll be here. I won’t leave you.”

In the doorway of the darkened hut nearby, Kagome sighed as she watched the two standing by the graves. “Poor Sango . . . I’m so glad she’s got Miroku.”

“Keh! Has he groped her yet?”

“InuYasha, he’s not always like that, you know. That’s like saying that you’re always grouchy and gruff and—”

“I am,” he argued.

She smiled and reached over to rub his ear. He jerked away but only after a second of the action. “You’re not.”

“Keh. You make me sound weak and pathetic.”

Kagome’s grin widened as she stared at the hanyou. “You’re blushing, InuYasha.”

“I _don’t_ blush.”

“What are you, then? Selectively sunburned?”

“What’s he doing?”

Kagome looked back toward Miroku and Sango. Miroku was holding Sango and whispering something to the exterminator that made her laugh. “He’s making her happy.”

“Keh! Disgusting. She giggles almost as much as you do,” InuYasha grumbled.

“One of us has to,” she countered with a smile. “Laughter is the best medicine.”

“If that’s the cure, I’d rather stay sick.”

Kagome rolled her eyes then gasped. “InuYasha! Look!”

He leaned forward to peek around Kagome’s legs, eyes widening as his interest spiked.

“I think . . . he’s going to kiss her . . . !”

Staring into Sango’s gaze with such tenderness and devotion that it nearly brought tears to Kagome’s eyes, the monk gently smoothed Sango’s bangs off her face. “Come on . . . !” Kagome murmured, clutching her hands over her heart.

Miroku leaned toward Sango just a little. Kagome held her breath as she waited, hoping for Sango’s sake that the monk didn’t remember his vow to make Sango ask.

And then, it happened. The inevitable. Miroku just _had_ to grope Sango’s rear. InuYasha roll his eyes and snorted a very loud, “Keh!” as Kagome’s hands dropped and she heaved a sigh with a disgusted shake of her head.

“What’d I tell you, wench? He’s a pervert, through and through.”

Kagome winced as the echo of Sango’s palm striking the monk echoed through the desolate village. “Can’t say he didn’t deserve that,” Kagome acknowledged.

“And then some.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome carefully picked her way down the overgrown path as she headed toward the lake to fill the water bottles. She breathed softly as the lake appeared before her. Bathed in the vibrant colors of the descending winter evening, the water reflected the brilliant oranges, the subtle violets, the muted reds and golds . . . .

“How fortuitous. I had hoped to talk with you.”

Smothering a gasp, Kagome whirled around, dropping her bag at the sound of the voice. “Katosan.”

Standing near the trees, he made no move to come closer though Kagome didn’t try to delude herself into believing that he could not close the distance quickly enough, if that’s what he wanted to do. “You don’t seem pleased to see me again, Miko.” Noticing the way her hand tightened around her bow, Katosan chuckled. “Will you purify me with your paltry arrow? I think not.”

She straightened her spine, lifted her chin defiantly as she stared him in the eye. “What do you want?”

Katosan lifted his eyebrows regally, countering Kagome’s question with a silent protest of innocence. Why was it that he, like Sesshoumaru, possessed such cold beauty? It was a strange thing, this sense that, of all the youkai she’d ever met, these two beings had the presence to shake her composure? “I wished to offer you some advice.”

She didn’t let her trepidation show. “I don’t need your advice.”

“But you do.”

Slowly, Kagome picked up the bag she’d dropped. “I need to go before everyone comes looking for me.” With a bravado that she was far from feelings, she tried to pass Katosan.

In an instant, the youkai had his hands wrapped around her arms, and he wouldn’t let go. His golden eyes drilled into her head, and she tried in vain to pull away.   “Let go,” she demanded, careful to keep her tone even.

“Not until you’ve heard me out.” When she didn’t reply, he nodded. “Now that I have your attention . . . I offer you this warning: bad things happen to little mikos who don’t realize they have no business with youkai . . . even half-youkai.”

“I’m not afraid.”

Katosan chuckled, low, threatening, menacing. “Neither was Izayoi-sama, and now she’s dead.”

Kagome gasped. “I thought . . . Did you kill her?”

Katosan shrugged. “I did not cause her death . . . nor did I seek to prevent it.”

“Could you have prevented it?” she asked, afraid to hear his answer but having to ask anyway.

His answer was long in coming. He let go of her arms and stepped back as he scanned the horizon as though he was remembering the past. “Could I have? Yes. Should I have? Possibly. Would it change the warning I give you now? Not at all.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I hold no allegiance for mortals. You are as meaningless to me as dust under my feet. My only allegiance has ever been given to the Inu no Taisho, and to his sons, even if the one is barely worthy to claim his heritage because of his tainted blood.”

Anger boiled up inside her. Deep-rooted resentment against anyone who believed InuYasha to be less than what he was because of circumstances he couldn’t control. Anger carried her forward, and anger had a voice. “You have no right to say things like that about InuYasha! You don’t even know him! He’s a better person inside than you or his brother or any other full youkai I’ve ever met, so if being half-human means that he’s nothing like the rest of you, then I’m glad he is.”

Her speech amused Katosan. Derisive laughter echoed in the air, rang in Kagome’s ears. “Save your righteous indignation, miko. Heed my warning; it may be the only thing that can save you in the end.”

She didn’t deign to respond to Katosan’s threat. Kagome turned to leave only to have his hand shoot out to stop her once more. She glared pointedly from his hand around her wrist to his face.

“Take care, Miko. There are worse things than death that could befall a hapless little mortal girl. It would be a shame for you to learn first hand, what some of those things might be. What would your hanyou do if his bitch reeked of another?”

Fury, panic, and a flash of fear combined in her, threatened to strip away the remnants of her composure.   Kagome reached out with her free hand, trying to pry his hand away. His grip tightened as he grabbed for her.

She wasn’t sure how it happened. In a blinding flash of pinkish-white light, Katosan let go, stumbled back. She heard his hiss of pain as she fell back, shielding her face against the stunning brightness. When the light faded, Katosan was gone, and she sat up slowly, rubbing her wrist as the beginning bruises mottled her flesh.

Relief was nudged aside by the edges of late horror at the things that Katosan had said, and she dropped her forehead against her raised knees as the tears came. She heard the sound of someone crashing through the foliage but it didn’t occur to her to look. Arms locked around her, but they were arms that she knew. The silent tears gave way to sobs as she let herself be drawn into InuYasha’s protective embrace.

It took a few minutes for her to realize that he was trying to talk to her. Too miserable to answer, she sniffled and shook her head as she buried her face in his haori. She felt him sigh as he gave up trying to make her answer, and he simply held her as the sun set over the lake.

“What did he want?” InuYasha asked softly.

She flinched at the fury underlying his otherwise gentle tone. “He said that we shouldn’t be together . . . because you’re half-youkai.”

“Keh! Bastard don’t know a damn thing.” Cradling her cheeks in his hands, InuYasha nudged her bangs aside with his nose. He kissed her face, growled low in his throat, a sound meant to soothe her.

She leaned against him, accepted his comfort, ignoring the cold as he wrapped her in his haori. Lifting her chin, she gazed into his eyes. His heart was there, suspended in golden light. She drew a ragged breath as his lips touched hers.

As bright as the sunshine, InuYasha dispelled the darkness in her thoughts, banished the lingering fear from Katosan’s threats. Opening like a cherry blossom in the springtime, he kissed her with careful tenderness that filled her heart and spilled over, bathing her soul and leaving her clean once more. The contentment that settled on her was complete and unblemished, whipping through her like hurricane winds even as the eye of the storm held her in silence. Whispers of dreams, a hundred doves taking flight in a bright blue sky, all of the pure things in this world united in him, and with his touch, with his lips, with his murmured words he gave them all to her.

And yet it wasn’t quite enough. Shifting in his lap so that she was straddling him, Kagome rose up on her knees, pressed against him, kissed him deep, drew him out until he moaned against her. Hands delving into his hair, she gave in to the riot of emotion, the overwhelming tremors that filled her body as she collapsed into him.

He fell back, dragging her down with him. Refusing to relinquish his hold on her, he kissed her hard, scraping his fangs over her lips, making her whine as she shivered. Moving her so that he had her pinned, he let his mouth roam over her skin, to her throat as her head fell to the side, eyes closed, and she whimpered. His hand slipped under her coat, burning against her belly through the bulk of her sweater. She arched her back, bringing her body up to meet his as a sound mid-way between a growl and a whine cut through the air just before he claimed her lips again.

Through the haze of sensation, Kagome felt a wash of tears sting the back of her eyelids. The gentleness that had started the kisses had returned, and with it came the most exhilarating and yet the most frightening realization of all. ‘ _I can’t live without him . . . because I love him . . ._ ’

 

 

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“Houshi-sama . . . I don’t think we should be watching this . . . .”

Miroku put a finger to Sango’s lips to silence her protests even though she wasn’t able to actually look away. “He’ll hear us if you’re not quiet,” the monk warned.

She smacked his arm lightly. “Me? You’re the one scuffling around in the leaves,” she pointed out. His finger pressed harder.

“I think he’s going to bark,” Miroku commented with a chuckle as Kagome turned enough to straddle the seated hanyou. “Huh. Wow.”

“That’s not amusing,” Sango whispered. “Just because he’s half-inu-youkai doesn’t mean—” She stopped abruptly as InuYasha fell back, dragging Kagome with him. “What are they doing?”

Miroku waved a hand at Sango without taking his eyes off the couple. “Kissing.”

“I know that!” Sango replied, “but it’s cold, and they—”

“Aren’t thinking about that in the least, Sango . . . .”

Sango’s eyes widened as the hanyou rolled, pinning Kagome against the ground. Not that the miko seemed to mind. On the contrary, she seemed completely oblivious to where, exactly, she was. InuYasha shifted slightly, trailing kisses along Kagome’s jaw, down her neck, against her throat. Sango’s hand rose to cover her own throat as she swallowed hard. “Is that . . . _good?_ ”

Miroku groaned quietly then sighed before glancing down at Sango. “Care to find out for yourself?”

Even in the darkness, Sango could feel blood rise to her face, staining her skin. “H-H-Houshi-sama!” she stammered.

“Can’t blame me for trying,” Miroku grumbled before focusing again on their friends.

When InuYasha slid his hand inside Kagome’s coat, drawing the miko up off the ground with a gasping moan, Sango quickly whirled around, cold hands pressing against her too-hot cheeks. “I—we shouldn’t be watching them!” she insisted as she got to her feet and hurried toward the empty slayers’ village.

Miroku caught her by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “What’s wrong, Sango?”

Sango scowled at the ground, kicked a pile of dry leaves. “I feel like we betrayed them by watching,” she admitted, feeling her face heat just a little more.

“Yeah, and those two never spy on us.”

Sango considered that then grinned slightly. “They do, don’t they?”

“Like earlier today, you mean?”

“Were they?”

Miroku rubbed his cheek as the memory of Sango’s slap returned. “Yes.”

She was quiet for a moment as she thought that over. “Then I suppose it isn’t so bad that we watched them,” she allowed.

He chuckled. “You know, Sango . . . if you’d like to find out what that’s like? I’d be happy to oblige you . . . .”

She pulled away from him as an impish smile surfaced on her face. “Thanks for the offer, houshi-sama . . . if I decide I want to know, I’ll be sure to ask.”

Miroku dropped to his knees as Sango turned and sauntered away toward the village once more. “You are one stupid, _stupid_ monk,” he told himself with a wry grin.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Mononoke_** _: creature spirit_.


	44. Waku

‘ _That bitch! She’ll die; I’ll make sure of it . . . . Then that puppy she dares to keep . . ._ .’ Waku grimaced as he stared at the stump of healed flesh. ‘ _Damn them . . . damn them both!_ ’

“Waku.”

Startled by the sudden appearance of the Lord of the Southern Realm, Waku turned slowly, carefully, hiding his surprise behind a mask of indifference. “Norimitsu, what a _pleasant_ inconvenience.”

“I grow weary of your incessant chatter, Waku. Would you care to die now?”

Waku spread his wings and floated gracefully to the ground. “Is there something you wanted?”

“You know what I want,” Norimitsu said, bearing his fangs in a flash of silver in the moonlight. His inky mane of hair flowed behind him, blowing in the breeze of the chill night air. “The moon is receding, and with it comes the weakness of the human blood in the hanyou. He will be frail. He will be easy to destroy.”

“And his bitch? The miko protects him,” Waku commented as he shot a disgusted glance down where his arm should have been.

Norimitsu digested that question in silence then nodded slowly. “The miko bitch . . . leave her to me.”

“What will you do with her?”

Norimitsu’s golden eyes flashed with hatred as he flicked his long raven hair over his shoulder, stabbing the hawk youkai with his disdainful glare. “I’ll kill her, of course.”

Waku nodded slowly. “They say she is his power. They say that she controls his youkai.”

“Impossible. A simple bitch—miko or not—yields no power over that.”

Waku shrugged. “They say that when she is threatened, his eyes glow red.”

Nonplussed, Norimitsu blinked almost lazily, as though the very idea that InuYasha might present more of a threat did not impress him. “It matters not. His powers will be contained if you time it right. Attack him on his night of vulnerability, and he will fall, miko or not, youkai or not.”

Waku pursed his lips, staring thoughtfully at the inu-youkai. “Why is it that you bear such animosity for the Brothers of the Fang?”

Norimitsu smiled—more of a grimace in the wan light of the waning moon. “The grudge I bear is not toward them. It was their father I reviled, and all he stood for. Loathsome lot, all of them. Better to destroy them than to suffer the living reminders of the past’s mistakes.”

“Why not let your grudge rest in peace with the body of the fallen Inu no Taisho? It would be simpler than trying to exact revenge on the living.”

In a blur of movement, Waku choked as Norimitsu lifted him off his feet by a hand to the hawk’s throat, his talons dangling uselessly above the ground. Norimitsu’s claws glowed green—glowed venomous—and they dripped with poison that fell onto the snow and melted the ice. Norimitsu glared at the hawk youkai before tossing him away as though he was little more than a common nuisance. “This Norimitsu is not a coward, and I have my reasons.”

Waku sat up, holding his throat with his remaining hand as he coughed and struggled to breathe. ‘ _I’ll kill InuYasha and Sesshoumaru_ ,’ he vowed. ‘ _Then I’ll find a way to kill you, as well, Norimitsu . . ._ .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _He knew right away that I was with child. Since he was youkai, and since he’d chosen to give me a child, it was known. I’ll remember that night forever, InuYasha. It was the blackest of nights. The heavens were clouded over, and not a star could be seen. It was the night of the new moon, a night that would remain important to me in the years to come. Not only was it one of those moonless nights when you were conceived, but, because of that, it was the night you would become mortal. There are other reasons this night will remain significant to you, in the years to come. I’ll explain that later, as your father asked me to do. But for now, I only mention it so that you will understand why those nights were special to me_.

‘ _Your father loved to sing to you. He would lay his cheek against my belly and sing softly to you. He said that inu-youkai could hear even before birth. He said that you would know his voice because of this, and that you would know mine. I used to laugh at him for doing this. It wasn’t until after he was gone that I realized how much I missed it. As you grew inside me, as it became apparent to one and all that I was carrying a hanyou child, more unrest came to the Western Lands. The youkai were appalled that he had chosen me as his mate, and they were disgusted that I carried a chosen child_.

‘ _I’m afraid that in all this, Sesshoumaru grew more discontent, more withdrawn. He had never been openly accepting of me, by any means. But it wasn’t until he was certain that you would be born that he grew bitter, angry. He argued with your father many times, bitterly, in raised voices that I’d not heard from either of them before. Sesshoumaru swore he would never accept a hanyou child, he swore that he would kill you before you drew breath. He thought to challenge your father as Inu no Taisho. I still have no idea how your father talked sense into his head. I think now that Sesshoumaru saw you as his rival, even before you were born. Sesshoumaru was the son your father needed in order to pass down the lands, the responsibilities. But, in Sesshoumaru’s eyes, you were the child your father chose, the child of his heart. I wonder if he will ever understand that, in his own way, your father loved you both equally_.’

‘ _Sesshoumaru? Accept me? Keh! As if I give a rat’s ass about that bastard . . . ._ ’ InuYasha sighed and rubbed his eyes.

Kagome tilted her head back to stare at him. “You alright?”

He tweaked her nose with his index finger. “Keh.”

“Interesting?” she asked, brushing his hand away as she nodded toward the diary.

“Keh.”

She leaned up and rubbed his ear then kissed his cheek and settled back down with the book she had to finish for school.

InuYasha shifted a little, dragging Kagome closer before he resumed his own reading.

‘ _He left for awhile, and when he returned, he had two swords. Tenseiga, he called one, and he said it was a sword of healing. The other was called Tetsusaiga. It was this sword that he told me would be your birthright one day, and that he hoped you would be able to harness and unlock the sword’s true power. He said that Tetsusaiga was forged to protect the world of man, and that, in particular, the sword was meant for you to protect those to whom you would devote your life: your own family, your own chosen mate. I pray you’ve found or will find this woman, InuYasha. Life is not worth living if you close yourself off from those who see you for who you are, not what you are. You will find her, I know. You will cherish her because she will cherish you. Find her, InuYasha, if you have not already. Find her, and use your birthright to allow no harm to come to her_.’

“Keh! Mother’s _diary_ is trying to make me settle down and start a family,” he complained.

Kagome giggled. “Really? Anything I want to hear?”

InuYasha felt his face grow warm. He hadn’t realized he had mumbled that out loud . . . . “Aren’t you supposed to be reading your boring book?”

She grinned. “I would if _someone_ would quit talking.”

‘ _When a new challenge arose in the form of a youkai called Ryukotsusei, The youkai had extended a challenge to your father. Ryukotsusei believed that your father had weakened because of me, and while I did not believe this, I had heard tale of Ryukotsusei’s unbeatable strength. They said he bore no weaknesses in mind or in body. Your father ignored the challenges, saying that he did not need to prove himself against a vile beast such as Ryukotsusei, but when Ryukotsusei began to threaten you, his unborn child, as well as me, your father decided that he’d heard enough. I begged your father not to go. It was the first time I’d ever openly asked him to ignore a threat. It was the only disagreement that your father and I ever had or would have_.

‘ _Because of the animosity that Sesshoumaru bore for you, your father thought it would be best to take me back to Musashi, to the house of my father. If I have ever held a grudge against your father, InuYasha, it is this. How could he have known that it would be the end of him? He said he would come for me as soon as he destroyed Ryukotsusei. I said some things to him that I have wished so often that I could take back. He left me in sadness, with a pain in his eyes that would haunt me every single day since. It was that look of pain, of hurt, that I saw mirrored in your eyes so many times. When the villagers would be cruel, when you reached out for someone only to be shunned, the anguish in your eyes was the same as the look in your father’s eyes on that day so long ago_.

‘ _I hadn’t realized until then that I was no longer to be viewed as my father’s daughter. Afforded the barest of quarters, shown the minimum of respect, I was a princess still, though it was in title only. Yet it was in this humble chamber, in this quiet room, in the midst of the night that you came into my life. It was the night of the moon when you were born. The full moon was covered by clouds now and again. Between the pains I stared through the curtains, and in the distance, I could hear your father coming for me_.

‘ _Takemaru had arrived earlier in the day. Time had made him bitter. He hadn’t gotten over the idea that I had chosen your father over him. He hated this, and it was this night, Takemaru came, and I knew what he meant to do. I wrapped my arms around my belly—around you, determined to protect you, no matter the cost. I remember Takemaru saying that he cared for me, and that he would save me from the mononoke. He stabbed me, but I did not die. I could not die, not until you were born. Just after I held you in my arms, nursed you against my heart, marveled at the wonder that was you, my son, I felt myself dying. Your face was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes, the sweet little face that looked exactly like your father. The next thing I knew, your father was there beside me, holding Tenseiga. He had saved me. He draped the fire-rat kimono over me and told me to run with you, told me that I must live, for you, but before that, he gave you a name: my InuYasha_.’

InuYasha sighed and closed the diary. He’d read enough for one day. He’d read _more_ than enough for one day. They didn’t answer any questions for him. Still, he had a better understanding of what had happened in the days leading up to his birth. ‘ _So that’s how Mother and I ended up with humans . . . ._ ’

Long dormant memories that he hadn’t thought about in years came back to him. Every night he’d gone to his mother, had slipped into her bed even though the others in the castle had insisted that he remain in his own room. How many times had he been caught and reprimanded? “Don’t disturb the princess,” they always said. “Stay away from her! She needs not the reminder of her mistakes.”

‘ _Her mistakes_.’ His lips twisted into a cynical smile that better resembled a grimace. ‘ _The chosen mistake_.’

Yet in the night, when he’d carefully and quietly slip under the covers next to her, she’d always welcomed him with a quick cuddle and a warm kiss, a tweak of his ears, and, if he was lucky, a softly whispered, “I love you.”

‘ _Mother, I . . . I miss you_.’

“What are you thinking?”

InuYasha blinked quickly as the memories faded. He looked down at Kagome. She had set her book aside and stared up at him with a solemn light glowing softly behind her luminous eyes. “Thinking about Mother.”

“Do you know exactly what happened to her?” Kagome asked gently, concern furrowing her brow, darkening her gaze as she worried at her lower lip.

InuYasha shook his head and sat up, scooting back against the head board and pulling Kagome into his lap. With a soft sigh, he swallowed hard once, twice, before he found his voice, before he dared put the memories into words. His mother’s cries, her voice, her quiet entreaties echoed in his ears, enough to drive him crazy. “I don’t remember much . . . just that she was in a room, and . . . I remember hearing her scream . . . I remember hearing her begging them not to hurt me. I remember hearing her crying, and I remember being angry that they’d made her do that . . . and I never saw her again.”

Kagome hugged him, her arms tightening around him, as though by doing so she could erase the pain of those memories. The pain didn’t lessen with her actions, but somehow he felt comforted anyway. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured as her arms tightened just a little more. “That’s just . . . I’m sorry.”

“Keh. It was a long time ago. It’s fine now.”

She leaned back, stared at him, offered him a small smile despite the tears in her eyes. “And you’re okay now? Why?”

He pushed her hair out of her face, hooked it behind her ear. “You have to ask?”

Her smile widened, and she wiggled around, resting her head in the hollow of his neck. “No, I guess I don’t.”

“Sneaky wench.”

She squeezed him again. “Do you want to do anything special tonight?”

He made a face. “You act like tonight is something special.”

She sat up and gave him a serious look. “Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided that what you need is to do special things on nights like tonight, so you don’t feel like they’re such a terrible thing, after all. Build some happy memories so that you don’t hate these nights so much.”

His gaze narrowed as suspicion took root. “Just what sort of ‘things’ you got in mind, sneaky wench?”

Kagome shrugged. “Whatever you want to do. We could go ice skating again . . . .”

“Keh!”

She peeped up at him through the thick fringe of sooty eyelashes then blinked. “Please? For me?”

“Kn-knock that off, sneaky wench!”

Kagome sat back with a puzzled look on her face. Suddenly she gasped as a smile surfaced and her eyes grew wide. “That’s your weakness, isn’t it?”

“N-n-no!” he squeaked.

“Can we go?”

She lowered her chin and repeated ‘the look’. InuYasha heaved a ticked-off sigh. “Keh. Fine.” She squealed happily as she launched herself into his arms again as his ears flatted against the shrill sound. ‘ _Okay . . . not such a horrible trade off . . ._ .’

“Are you going to wear that?”

He glanced down at his normal clothing before lifting an eyebrow and shooting Kagome a pointed stare. “What’s wrong with this?”

Kagome opened her closet and started rooting around. “Nothing,” she remarked, flashing him a quick smile. “I just wondered.”

He rolled his eyes. He might as well play along since she was liable to level him with ‘the look’ again, anyway . . . . With another loud sigh of protest, he stomped out and headed down the hall to Souta’s bedroom, where Mrs. Higurashi kept the few clothing items she’d purchased for him over the course of the last couple of years.

‘ _Gotta admit, the clothes aren’t that bad_ ,’ he thought as he made quick work of slipping on a pair of loose pants that Kagome called ‘jeans’ and a dark blue tee shirt. If they were as durable as the fire rat clothing, he really would like them. Out of habit, he tucked the shirt into his jeans and then glared murderously at the hated shoes. ‘ _Those can go straight to hell_.’ With yet another heavy sigh, he pulled on a thick pair of socks followed by the hideous shoes, wiggling his toes with a snort of disgust. Taking a second to pull his hair back and secure it with a black leather strap, InuYasha rolled his eyes at his reflection before snatching up his fire rat clothes and stomping back down the hall to Kagome’s room.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed pulling on her loafers when he thumped through the door. He stopped and stared. It’d been so long since Kagome had worn one of her short little skirts that he had somehow forgotten exactly how long and how pretty her legs actually were. Her habit in the winter was to wear jeans since they were often traveling in the cold. The sight of so much skin was a shock to his system, and he let his fire rat clothes fall to the floor in a heap as he stared at her in absolute amazement.

“What?” she asked nervously as she sat up a little straighter. “This looks stupid, doesn’t it? I’ll change—”

He crossed the room and sat down next to her on the bed, struggling to pull together his scattered wits before he completely humiliated himself by saying or doing something entirely stupid, like blurt out how much he liked the sight of her legs. “Keh. Sneaky wench fishing for more compliments, are you?”

She blushed and smiled then leaned over and kissed his cheek, her fingers toying idly with the kotodama rosary. “Thank you.”

Her scent filled his nostrils, the fragrance of summer flowers, of a sun-baked meadow. He inhaled her deeply, reveling in the riot of emotions that her aroma unleashed in him. He sighed. His sense of smell was rapidly diminishing. He made a face. Becoming human always unsettled him more from the viable handicap in his senses than because of any feelings of weakness. When he had been small, it had terrified him. On those nights, his mother had held him, sang to him, had told him not to fear his humanity because it was that part of him that would make him special. He hadn’t understood that, at the time. Staring at Kagome as she continued to toy with the dark blue beads, and the stark white fangs, he thought that maybe now, he comprehended his mother’s meaning.

A sudden frown crossed Kagome’s features as her hands fell away from the rosary. InuYasha tilted his head to the side as he waited for whatever it was on her mind this time. She sighed, scrunching up her shoulder as she twisted her fingers together in a perverse-looking mass of wiggling flesh. “How did you know? When Katosan showed up, how did you know I needed you?”

InuYasha tried to keep himself from blushing. He really, really did. He didn’t want to admit the reason he had gone looking for Kagome. He couldn’t even meet her gaze. ‘ _Keh! Just tell her, baka!_ ’ He snorted at his own thoughts. “I wanted to talk to —” ‘ _kiss_ ,’ “—you.”

Her cheeks darkened to a beautiful shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red. He smiled slightly then frowned, recalling Kagome’s very real upset when he’d finally found her, and the all-too-thick scent of Katosan that clung to her. “What did he say to you?” he demanded quietly.

She shook her head slowly, and for a moment, he thought she was refusing to tell him. “He said . . . he wanted to warn me. He said . . . that I don’t belong with you, and that . . .” she drew a deep breath and sighed. “That I should be afraid of things worse than death.” Her eyes slowly rose to meet his, sadness awash in her stare, an understated sense of fear that broke his heart. “He asked me what you would do if I smelled like someone else . . . . What did he . . . did he mean . . . ?”

InuYasha didn’t give her a chance to worry about that. Dragging her roughly against his chest, into his embrace, he held her, closing his eyes against the hurtful things that Katosan said. ‘ _I’ll fucking kill him . . . I’ll shove Tetsusaiga so far up his—_ ’

“I don’t like him,” she said in a tiny voice muffled by his haori.

“Kagome . . . I won’t let him hurt you. I promise you that.”

He kissed her forehead then gently moved her aside. She didn’t let go of him until he manually removed her fingers from his clothes. “Where—What— _No!_ ”

InuYasha shook his head stubbornly as he stalked out of the room. ‘ _Fucking bastard . . . I’ll find you, new moon or not . . . ._ ’

Kagome caught his arm just before he dropped into the well. “InuYasha, _no!_ ”

He jerked his arm out of her grasp and glared at her. “I’m going!”

She shifted his fire rat clothing into one arm as she tried to grab him again. He avoided her hand. “Wait until tomorrow, please! You can’t go tonight! You—”

“I’m going to be human, I know! Damn it, wench! He threatened to _rape_ you, or did you not catch the gist of that?” At her stricken expression, he sighed, relenting enough to lower his tone before he said, “I’m going to kill him, and I’m not waiting for morning! You stay here. I mean it! If you follow me this time, I’ll . . . I’ll . . . I dunno, but I’ll think of _something_.” Before she could reach for him for the third time, he flung himself over the lip of the old well. Pinkish light lit up the well-house as he slipped through the warp, and Kagome growled in frustration.

She climbed up on the side of the well and swung her legs over. ‘ _Why do you have to be so rash?_ ’ she wondered as she dropped into the blackness. Making a face, she shook her head. He might be upset that she followed him when he told her not to. Surely he didn’t really think she’d listen, did he? ‘ _Don’t let me be too late . . . I’ve got to stop him before he does something foolish . . . ._ ’ She groaned. As she fell, she saw through the open doorway that the sun had disappeared on the horizon.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Miroku pushed out his chest and drew his elbows back. The bones in his back popped and cracked, and he sighed. Sango ran over to him, her high pony tail swinging back and forth. She took his hand in hers as the two headed back toward the village. “Congratulations, houshi-sama, there’s not much more to teach you,” she remarked with a bright smile.

A sense of satisfaction coupled with the warmth of Sango’s hand in his brought a wide smile to the monk’s face. “You, Sango, are an excellent instructor.”

“So when are you going to stop hiding in the monk robes?” she asked lightly.

“I don’t hide in them,” he replied with a grimace. ‘ _All right, maybe a little_ ,’ he allowed.

She shot him a knowing look. “A youkai exterminator wears their armor with pride,” she remarked.

“Pride, huh?”

She grinned at his dubious expression. “I think you look very nice.”

He didn’t miss her pinkening cheeks. “Any part of me in particular or just me in general?”

“Hentai,” she mumbled but smiled.

“I’ll be your hentai,” he quipped, “as soon as we’re married.”

Sango missed a step. Miroku caught her, bringing her up against him. Her eyes dropped to his lips, and he grinned as a slow burn kindled in the depths of her gaze. So close that her breath fanned his lips, he nearly groaned out loud as she let herself relax in his arms. ‘ _Ah, Sango, if you had any idea what it is you do to me . . . ._ ’ He sighed, willing his composure to stay when it was ready to crumble. “Ready to ask yet?”

She blushed but smiled. “Houshi-sama . . . will you—?”

A tremendous crack rumbled through the air. Sango jumped as her eyes scanned the area, thoughts of stolen kisses apparently gone. Miroku felt like crying. ‘ _She was going to ask!_ ’

“Tell me, where is InuYasha?”

Miroku pulled Sango, maneuvering her so that she was behind him as he stared at the youkai who was striding toward them. “He’s not here,” Miroku answered. “Why do you seek him, Waku?”

The hawk youkai chuckled. “What a simple question. I want to kill him, of course.”

“I don’t think he’ll be as easy to kill as that,” Miroku remarked evenly.

“On the contrary. I happen to know that tonight is his night of vulnerability. Tell me—” Waku trailed off suddenly, a look of confusion crossing his features before he cocked his head to the side and asked, “Weren’t you a monk before?”

Miroku shrugged. “I changed vocations.”

Waku nodded. “I see . . . all right, tell me, exterminator . . . where is InuYasha?”

Miroku clucked his tongue and shook his head slowly. “My apologies, Waku . . . I can’t tell you that.”

Waku laughed. “Damn, I almost like you, exterminator-monk! _Almost_ . . . too bad I’ll have to kill you if you don’t tell me where you’re hiding the whelp.”

Miroku jerked the sickle out of his belt and shook his head. “Not if I kill you first.”

Then he whipped the sickle toward the youkai.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Mononoke_** _: creature spirit_.


	45. Shock

Waku jumped back in time to avoid the flying scythe. It flew in a wide arc before circling back. Miroku caught the handle with a determined grimace. ‘ _He’s fast . . . gotta slow him down . . . ._ ’

“Telegraphing your moves isn’t a wise thing to do, exterminator-monk!” Waku taunted with a deep chuckle.

“ _Hiraikotsu!_ ” Sango hollered, letting the huge weapon fly.

Waku waved his wings, creating a vortex. Hiraikotsu careened off course and tumbled, end over end, embedding itself into the frozen earth. Sango started to run for the weapon. Miroku caught her and jerked her back. “Sango! No!”

“How sweet! The exterminator-monk loves the wench,” Waku called out with another chuckle.

Miroku whipped an ofuda at the youkai. Another gust of unnatural wind blew it off course, too. Waku dove forward with his talons outstretched to intercept Miroku. He dove to the side, rolled to his feet, and drew his sword before he hit his feet and sprang up again. “Leave her out of this!” Miroku yelled as he rushed forward. He blocked a wind blade attack with the weapon. One of the blades hit the hilt close to his fingers, and the sword jerked out of his hand.

“So you’d rather die before her? Very well.”

Miroku had to dive again as Waku launched himself at him again. He was a moment too late. Waku caught Miroku’s shoulder and tossed him back. The monk slammed into a stout tree trunk and fell to his hands and knees as he winced, forcing back the nausea at the sudden pain that shot through him.

“Houshi-sama!” Sango screamed as she jerked Hiraikotsu out of the earth and dashed forward. She raised the boomerang over her head, swinging it in a wide arc as she grimaced with determination. Waku caught her with a wave of his wing. She flew through the air and smacked against the ground.

Miroku staggered to his feet, shaking the fuzziness out of his mind.

“ _Fox fire!_ ”

“Shippou! Stay back!” Miroku hollered as Shippou’s _kitsune-bi_ flashed in Waku’s eyes, blinding the youkai for a precious few moments. Kirara landed beside him. Shippou tossed Miroku the Shakuju. “Kirara, take Shippou back to the village,” he commanded, slapping the fire-cat’s rear. Kirara took off with a roar as Miroku jammed the end of the Shakuju into the ground and muttered the words that would cast a protective barrier around the unconscious Sango for a little while.

Miroku took advantage of Waku’s momentary weakness to heave the chained sickle again. Waku shrieked in pain and rage as the blade struck his wing and tore the appendage. A fine spray of blood spurted out as part of the left wing fell away.

“Filthy human! You’ll pay for this!” Waku raged as he shot forward. Miroku sidestepped the furious youkai. Waku swung wildly at the monk. Miroku slapped an ofuda on Waku’s arm and grimaced as the hawk screeched in pain.

Waku managed to pull the ofuda off with his teeth. “I underestimated you, exterminator-monk,” he remarked as he caught his breath a moment. “I won’t make that mistake again. Prepare to die!”

“I won’t die easily,” Miroku shot back as he chucked the scythe in a broad arc. Waku stumbled back as he sought to avoid the winking blade. ‘ _All right_ ,’ Miroku thought with a determined grimace, ‘ _let’s see what you can do since you can’t fly, Waku . . ._ .’

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

InuYasha scowled as his feet hit the ground in the bottom of the well. Instead of feeling the cold earth under his feet, he felt nothing except the damned shoes. ‘ _Fucking Katosan . . . where the hell are you?_ ’

He leaped at the wall, catching sturdy vines and snorted in disgust. ‘ _Keh! This is why I hate being human . . . damn it! Climbing! I fucking have to climb out of this stupid well!_ ’

Kagome’s stricken face, her bewildered expression raced through his head as he reached higher and pulled himself up. ‘ _He asked me what you would do if I smelled like someone else . . . . What did he . . . did he mean . . . ?_ ’

‘ _He threatened to_ rape _you, or did you not catch the gist of that?_ ’ InuYasha growled as scarlet rage clouded his vision. ‘ _Bastard! I don’t fucking think so . . . ._ ’

The fear he smelled on her, the scent of Katosan lingering around her, radiating off her when he’d found her sitting on the ground in the forest . . . InuYasha growled and climbed faster. Human hands weren’t nearly as useful as claws, and the shoes were slippery. He slid and fell as the pink light of the time slip opened up once more and Kagome came through.

“What the hell are you doing here, bitch?” he bellowed. “I thought I _told_ you to stay back there!”

Her chin rose stubbornly, and she tossed his fire-rat clothes in his face. “I brought you those, baka!” she shot back, “since you won’t listen to me! Don’t be so stupid!”

“Who are you calling ‘stupid’, wench?”

“You! You can’t go after him! Wait until you’re—”

“No! I won’t fucking wait! He threatened you, Kagome! He threatened to—”

“I _know_ what he threatened to do!” she cut in, eyes blazing in the darkened well, a glimmer of fire in the encompassing blackness. “I didn’t tell you so you’d go after him!”

“Then why did you? What the _hell_ did you _expect_ me to do?”

“I expected you to hold me!” As though her response took all of her upset to form, Kagome whimpered. A soft sob tore from her lips, and she threw herself against him. Still stunned from her yelled answer, he barely had time to react, to catch her. “Please don’t, InuYasha! Please don’t go after him, not until—”

He sighed and hugged her then pushed her away, holding her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. “I have to, Kagome. Katosan . . . he can’t do this to you. I won’t let him.”

“ _Fox fire!_ ”

“Shippou . . . .” Kagome whispered. She pulled away from InuYasha and grabbed at the vines to climb out of the well.

“Kagome, wait!” InuYasha growled, catching the impetuous girl’s arm and pulling her back. “Put these on.” He shoved the fire-rat clothes into her arms and started climbing.

Kagome stared at the crimson material spilling out of her arms. “InuYasha! You need these!”

He stopped climbing long enough to shoot her a fierce look. “Wench! Put ‘em on, already! You’ve got to be safe. I’ll be fine!”

She looked like she wanted to argue. A piercing shriek ripped through the air. She nodded and started to pull on the clothes as InuYasha climbed out of the well.

“Hurry it up, wench! We ain’t got all night,” he hollered down into the well. He couldn’t see her face from the top.

“I’m trying,” she called back. Her voice sounded like it was higher. A few seconds later, InuYasha grabbed her hands and dragged her the rest of the way out of the well. She shot him a trusting smile as she slipped her hand into his. Wrapped in the billowing material of the fire-rat clothes, she looked even smaller, even more fragile than she ever had before. “What do you think it is?”

InuYasha shook his head. “I can’t smell a damn thing,” he admitted. “Let’s go.”

Pulling her along after him toward the path that led through his forest to the village he had to admit that he was slightly worried. From the sounds coming from the forest, he could tell there was a decent altercation happening. He had little doubt that Sango and Miroku hold their own, but something about the voice that had screamed was too damn familiar. . . .

He heard Miroku’s yell as he ran faster. Kagome didn’t falter as she increased her speed, too. He concentrated on reaching the monk as they closed the distance to the trees. As long as Kagome was near him, she was safe.

Kagome’s hand jerked out of his. He skidded to a stop and turned as her gasp echoed through the clearing. Held against the chest of a strange inu-youkai, she struggled against his grip. Her back was smashed against the youkai’s chest, and he actually smiled as Kagome’s panic rose. InuYasha’s sensed might have been dulled but he didn’t have to smell her to be able to tell that she was fighting the desire to scream. The arm over her stomach tightened, and Kagome whimpered as the youkai brought his free hand to her throat, fingers glowing green. ‘ _Poison claws?_ ’ InuYasha glared at the youkai. “Let her go.”

Throwing back his wild mane of black hair, the youkai laughed. Slowly, deliberately, he stared at InuYasha. “You? A mere human? You would threaten me? Tell me where the hanyou known as InuYasha is.”

InuYasha’s fist tightened as he slowly drew Tetsusaiga. “Who the hell are you? Get your fucking hands off her!”

“Not that it matters to the likes of you, but I am Norimitsu, Lord of the Southern Realm.”

“Norimitsu?” he repeated, racking his brain to figure out why that name sounded familiar, like one he ought to recognize . . . . ‘ _Who the fuck cares, baka! He’s got Kagome!_ ’ InuYasha growled. “Let her go, damn you!”

He ignored InuYasha. “Is InuYasha in hiding? Where is he?” he asked, tightening his claws around Kagome’s neck though he didn’t break her skin. “I can’t detect him . . . all I smell is this miko-bitch . . . and _she_ smells just like him.”

“I’m—”

“ _No!_ ” Kagome gasped out. Norimitsu’s claws tightened even more.

“ _Kagome!_ ”

The youkai’s eyes flared. “You . . . you’re InuYasha!” He laughed once more as InuYasha gritted his teeth together. “You smell like your mother . . . . So your scent changes when you become human? Interesting . . . . Watch, InuYasha . . . watch as your bitch dies . . . .”

Raising his claws, he started to swing. InuYasha raised Tetsusaiga and started to dash forward. The sword pulsed in his hands, jerked in his grasp. He understood. Pointing the blade at Kagome, her body instantly radiated the bright blue light, and the barrier solidified as the youkai’s claws descended.

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

“Damn you!” Waku bellowed as he glanced at his torn wing. His eyes flashed red as he brought his glower up to meet Miroku’s violet stare. “Prepare to die!”

With an angry screech, Waku raced forward and jumped. Miroku dodged his talons and whipped around, zipping the sickle in a broad circle and embedding the razor sharp blade in Waku’s thigh. He jerked back on the chain to dislodge the weapon, sending the hawk youkai sprawling on the ground.

Waku pushed himself up again but lost his footing, unable to bear weight on his injured leg. Miroku held the chain between his middle and index fingers with the solid metal ball nestled comfortably in his palm. “Are you finished, Waku? Come at me again, and I’ll kill you.”

Waku choked out a laugh. “The day I fear a mortal is the day I will surely die.”

In the distant clearing where the dry well stood, a sudden flash of bluish light erupted then faded like lightning followed by a woman’s scream and a violent shriek. Miroku watched the youkai stagger to his feet. “Day or night, makes no difference to me, Waku. Either leave now and forget your vengeance, or I’ll destroy you.”

“Spoken like a true monk!” Waku lunged again, bringing his claws down across Miroku’s cheek as Miroku raised the sickle and sliced Waku’s shoulder. Crimson droplets that looked like jewels in the darkness of the night spurted out of the gash and flew through the air to rain down like tears of blood on the ground.

Miroku swung the weapon once more. Waku spun around with his injured leg outstretched, catching the monk across the back and sending him flying.

He landed beside the barrier he’d created to protect Sango. She moaned softly as Miroku forced himself back to his feet, wiping the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. ‘ _I don’t want her to have to fight_ ,’ he realized. ‘ _Sango . . ._.’

Waku’s eyes pulsed from red to yellow with the beat of his heart. ‘ _He’s going to transform. If he transforms . . ._ _._ ’ Digging the small dagger out of his belt, he straightened up and hurled it in one fluid motion. The small knife sank into Waku’s collarbone just above the youkai’s heart.

Waku didn’t even flinch as he stared down at the dagger. With a sickening slurpy-suction noise, he jerked the blade free and tossed it aside before staring at Miroku with an entirely shocked expression on his face. “Baka!” he hissed quietly. “Should have killed me when you had the chance!”

And with a ground-shaking shriek, the hawk barreled forward.

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

The barrier created around Kagome repelled the youkai’s hand at the last moment, and Norimitsu skidded across the ground, rolling over and over again, carried along by the momentum of the barrier.

Kagome screamed as the youkai hurled her as though holding on any longer might cause him further harm. Her body was tossed like a rag doll, and InuYasha leaped to catch her but wasn’t counting on his weakened human body being unable to return them both safely to the ground. She knocked the breath out of him as he caught her, and they fell as another flash of light split the night. She leaned over him, shielded his eyes from the brilliant flash, moaning softly as she moved all of her limbs to make sure nothing was damaged.

Finally, she scrambled to her feet and reached down to help him. He ignored the hand of assistance since he was still smarting over his inability to properly execute her rescue. “Where the hell is he?” InuYasha growled as he slowly got to his feet.

“I don’t know . . . he just vanished.” Kagome rubbed her neck and shook her head. “InuYasha? He said his name was Norimitsu, didn’t he?”

“Yeah . . . sounds familiar.”

Kagome nodded. “Your mother wrote in her diary about a man named Norimitsu . . . . Do you suppose he’s the same person?

“Keh! How the hell should I know? Damn it! He must have taken to his energy form and escaped.” He stepped over and yanked Tetsusaiga off the ground where he’d dropped it before lunging to catch Kagome. Staring at the rusty katana thoughtfully, InuYasha had to ask himself yet again how the blade had gained the ability to protect Kagome. “I don’t have time for this crap!” he bellowed. ‘ _I’m supposed to be looking for Katosan ._. . .’

Another angry roar echoed out of the forest, and InuYasha glanced at Kagome. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer as she broke into a dead sprint toward the trees. “Damn it! Don’t take off like that, sneaky wench!” he bellowed as he plunged after her, skidding on patches of old snow in the shoes he loathed.

Kagome stopped short as she drew up next to the small barrier that covered Sango. The spell was anchored in place with Miroku’s Seibai, and Sango sat up slowly. “Houshi-sama . . . ?” the exterminator whispered.

“What in the—?” Kagome mumbled as her hand lifted to cover her mouth. Dressed in all black in some sort of skin or pelt that absolutely hugged his frame, the monk she knew so well looked quite different as he advanced on Waku slowly, methodically, as though he knew exactly what he was doing. “What is he doing?”

InuYasha ran into her back when she stopped so quickly. “Fuck, Kagome, wha—what? What the hell is Miroku . . . _wearing?_ ”

In a flash of movement, the monk whipped the scythe-like weapon toward Waku. The blade struck true, decapitating the youkai as Kagome winced and looked away. Miroku caught the blade and, breathing hard, the monk watched as Waku’s body fell. Moments later, the slain youkai exploded in a burst of purple light. The ashen remains blew away as the wind dropped away. He knelt down, and for a moment, Kagome thought that he was going to offer a prayer, as he normally did. Instead he carefully wiped the blade of his weapon and stood, sticking the end of the sickle through his belt. Slowly, Miroku turned to face his friends as he wiped blood off his cheek with the back of his hand.

“The Monkinator,” Kagome mumbled, unable to tear her eyes off the young man she thought she knew.

“Wh—wh—what the _hell_ are you staring at?” InuYasha hollered.

Kagome broke her attention away from Miroku to glance back over her shoulder, feeling more than a little guilty for oogling the monk.

InuYasha wasn’t glowering at her, though. He was glaring back at Sango as a deep flush crept over his face. Sango shook herself, as though she hadn’t realized she had been staring. “You look so . . . different, InuYasha,” she remarked as she turned away and got to her feet.

“Keh!”

Miroku jerked the Shakuju out of the ground as the barrier it held in place dissipated, which brought Kagome’s attention right back to the transformed monk. “Miroku? Why are you dressed like that? I mean, you don’t look _bad_ at all, just different, but not different in a _bad_ way. Different is great, and you look really different! Um, I mean—”

“Oi, wench!” InuYasha snarled, grabbing Kagome’s arm and drawing her attention back.

Miroku sighed. “Sango has been training me in the ways of the youkai exterminators.”

“Keh,” InuYasha snorted. “I figured as much.” Kagome didn’t miss the narrowed eyes as InuYasha purposefully avoided her gaze.

“InuYasha, why are you wearing that?” Sango spoke up, staring at the human-hanyou and asking her question in an overly cautious tone. Kagome hid her smile as Miroku’s violet eyes darkened considerably.

“Kagome wanted—never mind,” he growled, pushing past them and stomping off toward the village.

Miroku shot Sango a last chagrined glance of his own before he ran to catch up with InuYasha.

Kagome couldn’t help it. She started to giggle. Sango suddenly giggled, too, and the girls fell into step well behind the guys. “I wonder how InuYasha would look in one of those outfits,” she said between rounds of giggles.

Sango blushed but giggled, too.

Kagome had the distinct feeling that Sango was wondering what Miroku might look like in the clothes that InuYasha was wearing . . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Shakuju:_** _Miroku’s staff_.  
>  ** _kitsune-bi:_** _Fox Fire (Shippou’s attack_ )


	46. Separation

Staring out the window of her childhood bedroom, Kagome tried to push away the edges of worry that gnawed at her. ' _A week since I've seen him . . ._.'

She sighed. It had been a week since InuYasha brought her home. In the end, she'd been able to compromise with him, much to her own relief. She was still trying not to worry about him.

" _You can't come with me!_ "

" _If you're leaving tonight, then I'm coming, too!_ "

" _Wench, I said—_ "

" _InuYasha!_ "

" _For the last time—_ "

 _Glaring at him as she carefully kept her distance from the edge of the well, Kagome stood her ground._ " _If you'll wait till tomorrow, I'll stay here_."

 _InuYasha rolled his eyes. "It don't matter because you're not coming with me_."

" _I'll follow you, and you know I will_."

" _Damn it, wench! Katosan's already threatened you, and I'm going to make sure he never does again! Stay. Fucking. Here._ "

 _She crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly and sighed. "You're just trying to protect me, aren't you?" she finally asked. His chin dropped as he leveled a pointed glower down at her. "Well, that's what I'm trying to do with you, too. I'm not asking you not to go at all. I'm only asking that you don't go_ tonight _._ "

" _Keh!" But he let her take his hand and he jumped into the well with her_.

She sighed again. When she awoke the next morning, he was gone, and his absence left her feeling as though nothing would ever be right in her life again. ' _InuYasha . . . I miss you . . . ._ '

The times they had traveled to Katosan's castle, it had taken almost two weeks to go there and come back. ' _Another whole week, at least . . . ._ '

Her gaze fell on the diary laying on the nightstand. Izayoi's diary. She had caught up to InuYasha's bookmark. She hadn't read any more even though she didn't think he'd mind so much. She was hard pressed not to read it, though, the last few days. Last night she'd fallen asleep holding the diary to her chest. Touching the book was enough to make him seem a little closer.

She got up and hesitantly picked up the book before sinking back into her spot by the window. Opening the old book always gave Kagome a feeling of melancholy, maybe because of the sadness in InuYasha's eyes whenever he talked about his mother . . . .

' _You amazed me, InuYasha. Such a solemn child, yet so full of love. I remember how you'd spend hours picking flowers for me because they made me smile. I watched you grow from an infant into a toddler into a little boy with such a big heart. No matter how often you were pushed aside or called hurtful things that you didn't understand, you never stopped trying. I know how desperately you wanted friends, and if I could have given them to you, I would have_.

' _I remember watching you grow, and I recall the small things about you. You used to get so cross with me when I taught you how to read. The stubborn set of your dear face always made me laugh.   The little pout you indulged whenever I told you that you couldn't have your way made me wish to give in to you every time. I think the worst, though, was the way you'd blink at me, so innocently. That look was enough to get your way most days. Mostly I remember how you loved to simply be held and cuddled. As though you were starved for the attention, you seemed to crave it_.'

Kagome smiled to herself. ' _So he's always been like that, has he? Figures_.' She stared out the window. ' _InuYasha . . . be safe_.'

' _I did my best to shelter and protect you. You never wanted to let me see the things you feared. As though you worried that your fears could hurt me, you guarded them with a fierceness, and in this, you were exactly like your father. I know your greatest fear came on the nights of the new moon. I know you fought against what you didn't understand at such a young age. It didn't make sense to you, why you couldn't smell, why your vision dimmed. Your youkai senses were dulled those nights, and you wouldn't let me out of your sight. It was on those nights that I worried the most, what your life would be. Finding someone you trust enough to share your secret with may prove difficult. But know, InuYasha, that if you can find the one spirit who will seek to protect you, then you may have found the one you were meant to protect in return_.'

Kagome reread Izayoi's words with a slight smile. ' _I'll protect you, InuYasha, and I know you'll protect me, too . . . ._ '

Mrs. Higurashi stuck her head in the door. "Kagome, I've got to run to the store to get eggs. Do you need anything?"

"No, thanks," she replied with a smile.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded. "Okay, dear. I'll be back in a few minutes."

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

"What are you doing out here?" Miroku dragged his gaze off the stars to smile at Sango. She pulled the shawl around her shoulders a little tighter, and sat down beside him on the small bench. "How is your back?"

"I'm fine."

She wasn't convinced. "You should let me look at it, at least. The bruising was severe."

Miroku grimaced. For the first few days after the fight with Waku, he'd nearly cried every time he had to move off his pallet. His back had been stiff and sore, and he had secretly despaired that he'd never be able to move properly again. But the last day or so had been decent with his back only twinging every now and again. Besides that, he had willingly asked to learn the art of the youkai exterminators. If he couldn't take a few bruises along the way then he had chosen the wrong vocation.

"It's fine, Sango."

"Houshi-sama . . . don't you think it strange that Waku knew that InuYasha's night of vulnerability was the new moon?"

Miroku nodded slowly. "I thought as much, myself," he admitted. "Then again, InuYasha hasn't been as careful with the secret as he should have been. Don't forget, he's let Kouga and his kin see him."

"And he did let Kagura see him, too. I always wondered why she never told Naraku about it."

Miroku shrugged. "Perhaps she thought that InuYasha could free her, when he defeated Naraku."

Sango smiled sadly. "I think she was happy when she died. I always wondered why Sesshoumaru stayed with her in the end." She giggled softly, shaking her head at her own fanciful thoughts. "Maybe he cared for her more than he was willing to admit."

"It could have been that.   Perhaps he simply respected her."

"How can two brothers be so different? They're like night and day . . . ."

Miroku shook his head. "In any case, I don't think InuYasha's night of vulnerability is common knowledge, but I also don't think that he's been as cautious about keeping it a secret as he could have been. Between fighting and choosing to let some see him in that state . . . . We don't know who might have been lurking in the shadows that might have witnessed the transformations, too."

She sighed and nodded her agreement as she stared at her hands, folded primly in her lap. He could tell she was thinking about something. He grinned. "Something on your mind?" he asked quietly.

She glanced at him, her cheeks warming in the thin moonlight. "I was just thinking how remarkably you fought against Waku."

Miroku looked away, suddenly feeling sheepish with the words of praise. "Well, he was already missing one arm, thanks to Kagome. I imagine it greatly affected him."

Sango shook her head. "It wasn't that," she insisted. "You remained so calm . . . the hallmark of the youkai exterminator. I'll be honored to fight by your side, houshi-sama. . . . Even more than I already was."

"Do you want to fight, Sango?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you fight because it is something you wish to do, or do you fight because you're the last exterminator?"

Sango lifted her gaze back to the heavens with a soft smile and sadness in her eyes. "I fight because I don't wish to be the last of the exterminators . . . because I don't want there to be another threat as great as Naraku. But I'm not the last of the exterminators anymore, am I? Thank you, houshi-sama."

He shook his head, his hand slowly closing over hers as he stared up at the stars, too. "No, Sango . . . . Thank you."

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha pushed off the ground, sailing over the tops of the trees as he tamped down the urge to rip something to shreds. ' _Where the fuck is that bastard hiding?_ ' he fumed. No one had seen Katosan in nearly three weeks, or so his people claimed. ' _Damn! He didn't just crawl into a hole and die, did he?_ '

Nothing was working out the way it was supposed to. When he left Kagome at dawn just after he'd changed back into his hanyou form, he hadn't anticipated the feeling that he was leaving a part of him behind as he hopped into the well. After a day of traveling, he had felt like turning right around and rushing back to her. ' _Baka! Just hurry up and find Katosan, kick his ass, and you can go back._ '

He growled. Every time he thought about what Katosan had said to her, every time he thought about what might have happened if Kagome hadn't been able to get away from the bastard, every time he considered the implications of the things Katosan had threatened Kagome with the hotter his rage burned. Because of that, he'd reached Katosan's castle in less than two days only to find that no one knew a damn thing as to the youkai's whereabouts.

Something else had occurred to him in the hours of solitude as he moved. He'd realized it before, of course. He'd always tried to ignore it. But he knew that he had to do something to better protect Kagome. He had to somehow find a way to get even stronger. There had to be something. There had to be a way . . . .

He sighed. ' _Well if I have to put off my search for that bastard, maybe I should drop in on the_ other _old codger_ . . . .' Suddenly turning in mid-air and springing back the way he'd come, he smirked. ' _Wonder if sneaky wench is up for a short trip_. . . ?'

Lighting on the ground, InuYasha sprinted through the trees. An incredible feeling of anticipation flooded over him. ' _If I don't stop, I can be at the well in two days. The well . . . and Kagome . . . ._ '

A familiar scent assailed him, and InuYasha skidded to a quick stop as a growl issued from his lips. As silent as the breeze coming from the east, InuYasha waited as the youkai stepped out of the trees directly into his path. He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest as he grimaced.

"I thought I smelled your stench, ignorant half-breed."

"Keh. What the fuck do you want, Sesshoumaru?"

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The doorbell dragged Kagome out of her reverie. She untangled her legs and dropped the old diary on her desk as she hurried out of her room and down the stairs to the front door. "Can I help you?" she asked with a smile at the tall man who stood almost nervously on the porch.

He bowed slightly and offered her a small smile. "Pardon my intrusion. I was passing by and was suddenly hit by the inspiration to visit the shrine. Do you mind if I have a look around the grounds?"

Kagome shrugged. "No, it's fine. Make yourself at home."

He smiled again and turned to move off the porch and onto the path that led around the house to the actual shrine. He stopped and glanced back at her, his gaze troubled. "Would you mind giving me a tour? I've been here before, once, when I was younger. But that was such a long time ago . . . ."

"Um, oh . . . okay," she agreed slowly. "Let me get my jacket."

He nodded as she closed the door with a slight frown. As she pulled on her jacket, she shook her head. There was something familiar about that man. She was sure she'd never seen him before. Still . . . . ' _Get a grip, Kagome_ ,' she scolded herself as she stepped into her slippers. ' _You're being overly suspicious of everyone lately. Must be from spending too much time with InuYasha . . . ._ '

She stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind herself.

The man hadn't moved at all. But he nodded to her again as she skipped down the steps and led the way around the house. She pointed out the highlights, making quick work of giving the young man a brief overlook of the shrine grounds. Pausing before Goshinboku, the man seemed even more interested in the tree than he had been in anything else

"So this is the famous God Tree."

Kagome smiled, remembering the same tree, over five hundred years ago, with the body of the crimson-clad hanyou stuck to it by Kikyou's sacred arrow . . . . "Yes, it is. It has protected this shrine for centuries."

"Really. I'm familiar with the lore . . . wasn't it said there was some sort of spirit sealed to this tree?"

' _Spirit? A spirit I wish would hurry back . . ._ .'

"So they say." She grinned as she pointed to the small knothole in the trunk. "That's where he was pinned . . . and he was a hanyou."

' _A temperamental, grumpy, grouchy, surly, arrogant, beautiful hanyou . . ._ .'

"A hanyou, you say? And wasn't he freed by a powerful miko from a strange and distant land?"

Kagome suddenly shifted uncomfortably. For some reason, the man's question struck her as odd. Most people asked why a miko would have pinned InuYasha to the tree. Most people would ask questions about Kikyou and would marvel at possessing spiritual power enough to contain 'the evil' hanyou. Why did this man want to know about her instead?

The man stared at her as though he was trying to see into her head, and even though she knew she'd never met him before, there was something entirely unsettling in his light brown eyes, something that reminded her of someone else . . . someone who stared at her with that sort of intensity, with that sort of distain. She stepped back quickly, distancing herself from the unspoken threat, the unwarranted animosity that overwhelmed her.

The odd look in the man's eyes dissipated quickly, gone before she could flee. He smiled, his expression almost predatory, and she stepped back again. "Feel free to look around," she said as she turned back to the house. "I hear the phone . . . ."

She ran inside and slammed the door, locking it behind her before she collapsed against it. The house was eerily silent, like a graveyard at midnight. She'd used the phone as an excuse, and oddly, she thought that the stranger might have known that, too. Kagome pushed herself away from the door and ran to the front of the house to lock that door, too.

Creeping over to the window, she peeked through the vertical blinds as the stranger slowly walked around Goshinboku. His light brown hair—almost bronze in the sunlight—gleamed, and as she stared, his disguise disappeared. She gasped softly and backed away from the window, her hands dropping to the back of the sofa to support herself since her knees suddenly felt as though they were made of jelly.

"Katosan . . . ."

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Miroku scanned the meadow with a scowl as he searched for any traces of youkai presence near the Bone Eater's Well. At least, that's what he told Sango he was going to do. She'd stayed behind to help Kaede with a few tasks. The miko was getting older and while she was just as hale and healthy as she ever had been, some of the everyday tasks were taking their toll on her.

With a sigh, he stared at the well, silently willing the girl on the other side of the time slip to reappear. She was like a sister to him. He'd always been able to ask her advice, to talk to her about anything. Kagome was also Sango's best friend, and while his sense of honor screamed at him that it was unfair to seek information from Kagome about her, he was near the end of his patience, and he really didn't know what else to do.

' _Kagome, if you come through right now_ ,' he thought as he leaned on the short wall and stared down into the darkness below, ' _I_ _swear I will never touch another rear that isn't Sango's as long as I live . . . ._ '

He shook his head sadly and turned to head back toward the village. ' _Never hurts to try_.'

He was almost to the forest path when a distinctly female grunt sounded behind him. Afraid to believe his ears, Miroku slowly turned in time to see Kagome crawl over the top of the well. The grunt must have been caused by the huge bag she carried, and he ran back to help the young miko. "Kagome! Just the woman I was hoping to see!" His expression darkened a little when he noticed the upset on his friend's face. "Something wrong?"

She forced a smile though her eyes still looked worried. "Oh, it's nothing . . . is InuYasha back yet?"

Miroku shook his head. "No . . . ." He stared at her another moment. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled again, and this one was much better. "How has everyone been here?"

"Just fine. Shippou missed you, of course. He's come to sit by the well nearly every day. Today, however, he is helping Sango with some of Kaede's chores." Miroku took the giant bag and slung it over his shoulder, wincing only slightly when the heavy books inside bounced off his still-sore back. "Kagome, can I ask your opinion as a woman?"

"Okay," she said cautiously. "Shoot."

Miroku stopped and turned to face Kagome with a heavy sigh. "What am I doing wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"With Sango."

Understanding dawned on the miko, and she nodded slowly. "What do you think you're doing wrong?"

His shoulders slumped as the bag dropped to the ground. "If I knew, I wouldn't be asking."

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him for a moment. "Well, for starters, what were you thinking when you said you wouldn't kiss her unless she asked you to?"

He flinched. "She told you about that?"

"Don't change the subject. You know Sango's shy.   Better to dangle water in front of a man wandering in the desert."

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Kagome muttered. "It just wasn't a very smart thing for you to have done, though."

He winced. "I didn't want her to feel pressured," Miroku admitted as his cheeks warmed. "I care about her . . . ."

"Why would you say that to her, anyway?"

His cheeks heated up a bit more, and he studiously avoided the miko's probing stare. "I've never . . . I mean, I'm not . . . I haven't . . . ." He trailed off, fingers grasping at invisible answers that eluded him.

"You've never kissed a girl?" Kagome asked, her tone registering as much disbelief as her face.

"The youkai in women's disguises don't count, do they? I mean, I _have_ , but no one like Sango," he finally said, his voice dropping to a whisper as he shuffled his feet and scowled at the ground. "I just want her to feel the same things I do when I look at her."

"And what makes you think she doesn't already?"

"Because she hasn't asked me to kiss her!"

Kagome thought it over. Finally, she giggled. Miroku glanced up at her with a miserable frown. "You can wait till the cows come home for her to ask, then . . . . Or . . . ."

Miroku's eyes widened in alarm as Kagome grabbed the bag and strode toward the forest trail. For the first time, ever, he understood perfectly why InuYasha insisted on calling the young woman 'sneaky wench'. "K-k-Kagome!" he called, racing to catch up with her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him. "Or what?"

She grinned and patted his cheek—his sore cheek. He winced again. "Or . . . you could kiss her without waiting for her to ask, baka!"

Miroku's eyes widened in surprise as he watched Kagome head off down the path toward the village again.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

"What do you want? I've got more important things to do—"

"Ask me not, your frivolous questions. What do you here, so far from Musashi?"

"None of your fucking business. Why did you seek me out?"

"Ignorant half-breed. You pass through my lands, and I smelled the stench that is you."

InuYasha snorted. "Keh! I was looking for someone."

Sesshoumaru was mildly interested, if the slight lift of his eyebrows meant anything. "It's Katosan you seek."

Just the mention of Katosan's name was enough to make InuYasha gnash his teeth. "What of it? You know where that bastard is?"

"I have no interest Katosan's current whereabouts." He looked around slowly, carefully, and without turning his head at all. "Where is your miko? Did she finally tire of your slobbering presence?"

InuYasha contented the itch in his hand spurred by the desire to draw Tetsusaiga by resting his hand on the sword's hilt. "I have my reasons for leaving Kagome behind. She's safe."

"A threat levied against your miko, perhaps?"

InuYasha's eyes flared wide then narrowed as he stared at his half-brother. "What do you know about it?"

Sesshoumaru's head turned enough for him to cast InuYasha a side-long glance as he casually flexed his claws. "Katosan has never harbored affection toward humans, unlike some pathetic half-breeds."

"Well, if you can't help me, then I'm outta here," InuYasha growled as he turned to leave.

"One more thing, InuYasha."

He stopped and glanced back over his shoulder. Sesshoumaru stared off to the right, expression inscrutable, golden eyes narrowed as he scanned the forest. "You'd do well to better guard your dirty little secret from those who wish to exploit it."

"Kagome isn't a weakness and there ain't a damn dirty thing about it, bastard."

Sesshoumaru's eyes shot back to lock with InuYasha's again. "I speak not of your vile relationship with the miko, baka. Trifle not with Norimitsu."

That was enough of a taunt for InuYasha. Drawing Tetsusaiga as he rounded on his brother, InuYasha's lips twisted into a sneer as he stared at his sibling. "You know he attacked Kagome, don't you? And that he was looking for me. Why?"

Sesshoumaru broke into a rare half-smile and further confounded InuYasha by chuckling nastily. "I would not worry how it is that I know of this. I would worry more how it could be that Norimitsu knows so much about you."

InuYasha drew back in surprise. A rush of understanding crashed down on him, and he narrowed his glare at Sesshoumaru. " _He_ has it, doesn't he? He has Mother's diary."

Sesshoumaru shrugged almost imperceptibly. "Perhaps." The youkai turned and started away, back into the forest to fade into the trees. "Heed my words, InuYasha. There are those who would as soon see you gutted than let you live. It might be in your best interests to keep those claws from digging into your back when you least expect it."

InuYasha frowned as he considered Sesshoumaru's words. Nothing made sense. Sesshoumaru knew something more than what he'd said but it wouldn't do any good to ask him anything else. He'd keep information from InuYasha just for spite and to watch him squirm. But one thing was clear to him, despite everything else. ' _Norimitsu has Mother's diary . . . but . . . why would he have wanted it? And how does Sesshoumaru know this?_ '

 

 

 

 

 


	47. Magic

“And he means to harm ye.”

Kagome nodded slowly as she carefully stirred the stew. Miroku and Sango weren’t back yet. They’d gone to a neighboring village to take care of an infestation of rat youkai. Kagome figured that they’d decided to spend the night there. “InuYasha went looking for him, which means that, even if he did find Katosan, he didn’t kill him, right? Because if InuYasha had killed him then I wouldn’t have seen him in my time.”

Kaede sighed. “Aye, child, sounds right.” She got up and retrieved some bowls from the small cupboard and returned to her spot by the fire. “And ye know not why he sought you out in your time?”

She pursed her lips as she considered Kaede’s question. “I don’t know . . . I almost think he did it just to prove that he was still alive. I mean, if he was there, then he had to have lived that long, right? Because InuYasha and I seem to be the only ones who can go through the time slip . . . .”

Kaede agreed with a nod. “How did ye manage to escape Katosan in the forest, since you say that InuYasha was not there?”

Fiddling with the hem of her sweater, Kagome frowned as she remembered that day. Katosan grabbed her arm and he hadn’t acted like he wanted to let go of her. “There was a flash of energy that sort of just . . . exploded. He let go then, like I’d hurt him, just before he disappeared.”

Kaede digested that bit of information in silence. Deliberately taking her time dishing up two bowls of the fragrant stew, she handed one to Kagome. “I remember something of this nature happening before, the night ye released InuYasha.”

Staring at her stew but not interested in eating any of it, Kagome set the bowl aside and shook her head. “I remember that, too. It was sort of like that, but it seemed different this time, stronger.”

“Aye, well, that stands to reason. You’ve grown stronger over time. ‘Tis my guess that your mind was reacting to the perceived threat, and it was your own miko’s aura that took action when you could not.”

A small shiver raced up Kagome’s spine as the feeling of being completely vulnerable assailed her again. She never wanted to feel that naked, that exposed, that frightened again. “Kaede, can I learn how to control those powers?”

Kaede sat back and stared at Kagome for a moment then nodded. “Aye, it can be done. It may be taxing on ye, both mentally and physically. Can ye withstand this sort of training?”

Kagome shrugged. “I don’t have much of a choice. I can’t stand always feeling so helpless, especially when InuYasha’s gone.”

Katosan’s words came back to her again. ‘ _Take care, Miko. There are worse things than death that could befall a hapless little mortal girl. It would be a shame for you to learn first hand, what some of those things might be. What would your hanyou do if his bitch reeked of another?_ ’ She closed her eyes against the hateful words.

‘ _Would he have . . . he wouldn’t have done that . . . as much as he hates humans, he wouldn’t have done that . . . ._ ’ She sighed. She wished she felt more positive about that.

Kaede nodded. “All right. Best be getting plenty of rest then. Ye’ll need it in the morning.”

Kagome dumped her bowl back into the pot, ignoring Kaede’s disapproving look. Then she washed her bowl and unrolled her sleeping bag.

Katosan had left the shrine shortly after Kagome had retreated into the house. ‘ _He wanted me to know it was him,’_ she realized as she drew her knees up tight in the sleeping bag. _‘He was taunting me, letting me know that he knew where I was . . . but what does that mean about InuYasha? Did that mean that Katosan somehow knew that InuYasha wasn’t there . . . ?_ ’

Shippou bounded into the hut with Kirara fast on his heels. Kagome listened to the kit tell Kaede about his latest escapades as the old miko dished up his dinner. After he’d eaten, he yawned and curled up beside Kagome.

‘ _InuYasha_ ,’ she thought as consciousness drifted through her fingers, ‘ _be safe . . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sango hissed as Miroku dabbed at the cut with a wet cloth. “Sorry!” he said with a wince.

“It’s all right,” Sango gritted out. “How bad does it look?”

He swallowed hard as he stared at the pale flesh, glowing golden in the warmth of the firelight. She had taken a hit from one of the rat youkai. The beast had managed to dig its claws into her shoulder before Miroku had been able to get it off of her. The cut didn’t look too severe though it had bled more than he liked. Even then, he’d had to practically threaten Sango to let him so much as see it, let alone clean it. But it was too late for the nearly hour and a half walk back to the village since they’d left Kirara behind to watch over things and to look out for Kagome and Shippou.

“It’s not bad,” he answered, dragging his thoughts back to the present. Sango winced as she tugged the coarse white robe back into place. “I’ll check it in the morning, too, to make sure that it is healing properly,” he remarked as he leaned back on his hands with his back toward the fire.

Sango held the robe closed at her throat as she stared pensively into the dancing flames. “Kagome looked troubled when we left,” she commented. “I hope she and InuYasha didn’t have an argument before he left.”

Miroku frowned. The last thing he wanted to do was discuss Kagome and InuYasha. But Sango was concerned, and he knew well enough that once the exterminator started to worry over her friends, there wasn’t much hope of distracting her until she was satisfied. “It would help if we knew where InuYasha had gone.”

“He never did say why they came back that night, did he?”

Miroku made a face. “No. I asked but he wouldn’t answer. He did look quite agitated, though . . . but I didn’t have the feeling that he was irritated with Kagome at all.”

Sango sucked in her cheek as she considered Miroku’s answers. “I’ll ask Kagome when we return.”

He picked up a rice ball and held it out to her. Sango took it and smiled before nibbling at it. Miroku watched her.

“Aren’t you hungry?” she asked when he made no move to eat.

He shook his head. “In awhile.”

She made quick work of the food. Miroku grinned as he caught her staring at the other rice ball on the tray. He handed it over. “Are you sure?”

“Go ahead.”

She gazed at him almost guiltily before she gave in and ate it, too. She caught his amused stare and glanced around quickly. “What?”

“You’re beautiful.”

He grinned as her cheeks pinked. “You’re tired. Take a hit on the head you forgot to mention?”

“Not at all.”

She swallowed the last of her food.

“Sango?”

“Yes?”

Miroku couldn’t help himself as he stared into her eyes. “I think I made a mistake.”

Her eyebrows drew together as she gazed at him with obvious concern. “What sort of mistake?”

He leaned in closer, brought his hand up to stroke her cheek. She stared at him, her bottom lip trembling precariously. “Houshi-sama? What—”

“Don’t talk, Sango.”

His lips covered hers with an urgency built up by the weeks and months of wanting. She gasped softly, the sound muffled by his mouth. Her entire body was tense in his grasp. He coaxed her tenderly, let his lips persuade her with soft pressure, gentle teasing. With a sigh, she relaxed against him, accepted his kiss as she leaned toward him, into his arms.

Time and space fell away. Thought seemed to spin into itself. Anxiety that he would somehow let her down dissipated as her arms slowly, hesitantly, reached up around him, holding onto him as tightly as she could. The riot of emotions that soared and flowed twisted together into one tight coil that tied his body in knots. She breathed against his lips, shallow, ragged, as though she had forgotten that she needed to do that.

He stroked her face, cradled her close, telling her without words how precious she was to him, how much he needed her. She was the beginning and the end, everything he’d ever searched for. Nothing mattered so long as Sango was here with him, so long as she held him, so long as she kissed him.

He broke from her as his desire heightened. Unwilling to frighten the woman in his arm, he made himself let go, forced his instincts to obey his will. He leaned his forehead against hers as she clung to him. “I should have done that a long time ago,” he whispered.

Suddenly Sango laughed. He joined in. “But I didn’t ask.”

“I tried to wait for you to ask. It was killing me.”

Sango’s cheeks pinked. “Why?”

Miroku pulled her into a hug, her cheek pressed against his heart. “Because I knew that kissing you would be . . . magical.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _Watching me . . . ._ ’

 _She ran through the forest. Someone was chasing her. Panting for breath, she ran faster. She called out again, demanded to know who followed her. In the pale, the first rays of dawn, no answer came. Kagome sprinted on, hurtling over roots and ducking under low branches, toward the well, toward home, toward safety_.

 _He was closer, just behind her. She could hear his breathing, feel his eyes on her . . ._ .

With a strangled cry, she sat up. In the darkened hut, she clutched her chest. Shippou hadn’t moved at all. Kagome closed her eyes as relief washed over her. ‘ _It was just a dream . . . ._ ’

“What the hell are you doing _here?_ ”

Kagome gasped and whipped her head to the side. InuYasha sat against the wall with his arms wrapped around Tetsusaiga. He glared at her with a ferocious intensity that pinned her to the spot as her breath caught. She wanted to run to him. The look on his face made her stay still. He was furious.

“I came back yesterday,” she whispered as she forced herself out of her sleeping bag, trying not to disturb the sleeping kitsune.

InuYasha got up and grabbed her hand to drag her toward the door. She tried to pull away. “What are you doing? InuYasha! _Wait!_ ”

                                               

He didn’t listen. As soon as they were out the door, he picked her up and bounded away, straight toward the forest, straight toward the well.

“No! I can’t go back! InuYasha, _he’s there!_ ”

Stopping so suddenly that Kagome thought he was going to throw her, InuYasha set her on her feet and glowered at her. “ _Who’s_ there?”

“Katosan. That’s why I came back.”

“How? Where?”

“He came to the shrine. He wanted me to know it was him, I think. So I came back.”

He stalked back and forth, flexing his claws like he wanted to tear into something.   Kagome could understand his frustration. She’d felt like that since he left her. The overwhelming desire to be in his arms welled up inside her, and she reached out as he stomped past her, touched his arm. He swung around suddenly, scowling down at her for the briefest of moments before he dragged her roughly against his chest, mouth dropping over hers in the same movement as he held her tight.

The world spun around her, opened up beneath her as she felt as though she was falling. He caught her against him, his lips demanding and hungry, drawing every emotion from her soul as though he was starving. Even as he drained her of her will, he filled her with another sentiment, something far more wanton, something heady, something unnamable, something that she wanted. Spires of heat shot from his body to hers as the days of forced separation fell away. “I missed you,” she mumbled between kisses.

“Shut up and kiss me, wench,” he growled as his lips sought hers out again. Her body was weak, yielding as he pressed against her, surrounding her in the consuming need, the urgent ache that made her want to melt into him. His insistent kisses lingered on her, rolled in her belly, churning in her mind as the cold became an abstract thing, as she forgot that he’d ever left her behind. His passion gave way to tenderness, his gentle touch fueling the burn that made her feel as though she was about to shatter, to break.

Nuzzling her cheek until her head fell to the side, InuYasha growled as his mouth dropped to her throat. He held her, suspended against him, ravaging her flesh as her body exploded in a solitary combustion of heat.   Her knees buckled but he was there to catch her, sweeping her into his arms as she vaguely realized that he had left the ground.

‘ _Goshinboku_ ,’ she thought dizzily as she kissed him a thousand times, a million times. Gentle touches against swollen lips, a conflagration of hope and desperation wrapped her mind in a haze of longing as his hands sought out the scorch of her skin. She turned in his arms, her hands seeking his flesh, delving beneath the confines of his haori, of his undershirt. The contact ripped a fierce growl from him, intensifying the power of his kisses, the ardor of his touch. Stroking her back with the tips of his claws, she shuddered against him as he whispered her name. She trailed kisses down his throat, savoring the taste of him on her tongue.

“Kagome,” he murmured as he pulled her closer, tightened his hold on her even as his body tensed, as though every muscle in him was fighting something she couldn’t see. “K . . . Kagome . . . .”

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, filled her head with an unsettling incoherence. He was trying to speak to her. His voice was muffled, far away, no more than a whisper. She nestled against his neck as she kissed him softly. He held her close, and then he sighed. His hand caught her chin, forced her to look into his eyes. The brightness of his gaze emblazoned in her mind, he smiled at her in the dark and gently pulled her close. “I think we’ll fall if we don’t stop,” he teased softly though his expression seemed pained. Kagome wanted to hit him.

She sighed long and loud in protest. He rasped out a chuckle as he wrapped her in the folds of his haori to shelter her from the chill night air. “I ought to push you,” she remarked.

“Keh. If I fall, you will, too.”

“Why did you stop?” she asked, unable to keep the frustration out of her tone.

He sighed, struggling for the words to explain, the words that eluded him. “Kagome . . . I . . . you . . . not here, not in a tree.”

She made a face, hating to admit that InuYasha had made a valid point. Then she gulped. ‘ _Did we almost . . . ? Was that . . . ?_ ’ Her eyes widened as she understood at last. To distract herself from the disappointment and acute embarrassment that was enough to kill her, she straightened up a little. “So I take it you didn’t find Katosan?”

Irritation replaced the mellow look he’d been sporting. “I can’t find him anywhere. Anyway, I figured I’d go talk to Totosai instead.”

“Totosai? Did something happen to Tetsusaiga?”

He shook his head quickly. “No. I wanted to see if he can make it stronger.”

“It’s not strong enough?”

He shot her a dark look, as though her question was entirely foolish. “You can _never_ be strong enough, wench.”

“Why do you need to be stronger?” she asked quietly.

“Because I never want you to be scared again,” he admitted, “and so when I do find Katosan, I can destroy him in one strike.”

She sighed, shaking her head at his perceived blood-lust, and idly wrapped his hair around her finger. “I asked Kaede to teach me how to control my powers. When Katosan came to the shrine I felt helpless. I don’t want to feel like that anymore.”

His scowl was unaccountably dark. Kagome stared at him. His eyes flashed angrily as he glared at the surrounding forest. “No.”

“No?”

“You don’t need to learn that, damn it! I’m the one who protects you!”

“You’re the one who protects me,” she agreed, snuggling against him as a wave of drowsiness hit her. “It’s just sometimes, you can’t always be there.”

“Keh!”

“I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered as her eyes drifted closed.

“Go to sleep, wench. We’re leaving for Totosai’s at dawn.”

 

 

 

 

 


	48. Tetsusaiga

InuYasha growled as he stared into the darkness ahead.

“Youkai,” Kagome mumbled as she slipped off his back and started to step forward.

InuYasha caught her hand and dragged her back. “Are you stupid, wench? Stay behind me!” he snapped.

“But—”

InuYasha shoved her behind his back as Kouga burst out of the trees and skidded to a halt before the two.

“Well, if it isn’t mutt-face.” Standing on tiptoe to look over InuYasha’s shoulder, Kouga grinned. “Oi, Kagome. Haven’t ditched the dog-shit yet, I see.”

Kagome put her hands on InuYasha’s shoulders, trying to peek over to see her friend. “Hey, Kouga . . . how’ve you been?”

Kouga rolled his eyes but smiled. “She ought to keep you on a leash, mutt. Why don’t you let Kagome come over here and give me a big ol’ hug?” He held out his arms.

Kagome started to walk around InuYasha, who grabbed her around the waist and deposited her behind him once more and tweaked her nose with his index finger for good measure. Kouga looked momentarily surprised then laughed. “Fat fucking chance, mangy wolf,” he remarked tightly as he turned back to face Kouga again.

Kagome blinked in surprise. ‘ _What was that? He didn’t even raise his voice—yet. What’s gotten into InuYasha?_ ’ She wrinkled her nose a few times. ‘ _And why did he do that?_ ’ she wondered about his abuse of her nose. “InuYasha, it’s fine, you know. Kouga went to find a, err, _mate_ , right, Kouga?”

“You didn’t tell him before?”

Kagome made a face. “You asked me not to,” she reminded him.

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! Like that matters. Fucking wolf, what the hell do you want?”

“Relax, relax . . . I smelled your rancid stench and figured you’d have Kagome with you, is all.” He craned his neck back, trying to see over InuYasha’s shoulder again. Pity I gotta deal with dog-shit just to say hi to you, Kagome. You sure you don’t want me to kill him for kicks?”

InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga in a flash of light, brandishing it before himself as he glowered at Kouga. “I’d like to see you try.”

Kouga glanced at the sword then looked back again with a frown. “When’d it turn blue?”

“When did what turn blue?”

“That.”

“Huh?”

“Baka dog-shit . . . your sword is blue . . . .”

Kagome stared at the blade with a frown. True enough, the aura surrounding the blade _was_ bluish. What in the world . . . ? “InuYasha?”

“Keh! Who the hell cares? Blue, silver, red, fucking pink with polka dots, I can still beat the shit out of him with it,” he snarled.

“Oh, put it away, will you?” Kagome argued. “Kouga’s not here to fight you!”

“I could be persuaded,” Kouga volunteered.

“No, you can’t,” Kagome snapped, rounding an incredulous glare at Kouga. “This is why you and Sesshoumaru can’t get along,” she went on, stabbing InuYasha with a dark look. “You can’t even play nicely with Kouga.”

“Who said anything about playing?” InuYasha asked. “I’m gonna hack him to bits . . . .”

“Don’t make me say ‘it’,” she warned.

InuYasha stared at her then sighed, dropping Tetsusaiga back into the scabbard.

“So what gives, mutt-face. What happened to your precious sword?” Kouga pressed.

InuYasha shot him a sidelong glare. “You think I’m gonna tell a bastard like you?”

Kouga snorted. “So you really don’t know, do you? You’d better get that checked out. I hear that things have a tendency to fall off and die once they’ve turned blue.” He turned on his heel and sped off, tossing a, “See ya, Kagome!” over his shoulder as he disappeared into the trees.

“I—fucking— _hate_ —him!” InuYasha growled.

“It’s because you and he are so much alike, you know,” Kagome remarked as she sank down on a boulder beside the path. “They say that when two people are that much alike that they normally can’t stand one another.”

“I—he—wha— _No way!_ ” InuYasha blustered. “That’s not even _slightly_ funny, sneaky wench!”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “The truth rarely is, InuYasha. Anyway, aren’t we almost to Totosai’s?”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh. Come on.”

She blinked in surprise. “You’re not going to carry me?”

“Go find that fucking wolf. He’s just like me, ain’t he?”

Kagome sighed and fell in step beside him. “Well, I’m sure he’s not _just_ like you . . . at least, not completely like you . . . .”

She saw his eyes slip to the side to stare at her. “Oh?”

“Sure,” she quipped. “He doesn’t have a blue Tetsusaiga . . . .”

InuYasha’s mouth fell open in disbelief, and he stomped ahead. Kagome stifled her giggles behind a hand to her lips. “Come on, wench. Stop lagging behind.”

She ran to catch up with InuYasha but didn’t stop until she was standing before him. When he didn’t stop moving, she had to walk backward along the path. “So why _is_ Tetsusaiga suddenly blue?”

“Dunno.”

“Not even the slightest idea?”

“Nope.”

She considered that then shrugged. “Did you fight anything lately? Or maybe absorb something, like you did to get the red Tetsusaiga?”

“Uh-uh.”

She grinned impishly. “Do you want me to be quiet?”

He heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. “Absolutely.”

Her grin widened. “Make me, Dog-boy.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You asked for it, sneaky wench.”

His golden eyes brightened, and he growled at her. With a shriek, she sped off, knowing full-well that there really wasn’t a hope in the world she’d be able to outrun him, even if she wanted to.

She was right. Seconds later, he hooked her around the waist and leaped into a nearby tree. “Now . . . how do I make the sneaky wench stop talking . . . ?”

Kagome reached up and tugged lightly on his ear. He tweaked her nose again as he kept considering. She wrinkled her nose again and shifted so that she could reach his ears better.

“Knock that off, wench. I can’t think when you’re playing with my ears.”

“ _Really_.”

A look of unadulterated panic crossed his features as he leaned away from her grabbing hands. “Nope. I lied. Back off!”

Kagome rose up on her knees and grabbed at his ears again.

He kept trying to duck away but time and again she caught him. “Damn it, wench! Are you an octopus youkai or something?” he growled then laughed as she captured his ear securely and rubbed.

She stopped suddenly and stared at him with a smile on her face and the start of tears in her eyes. InuYasha leaned away as his laughter died away and instant worry invaded the depths of his gaze. “Why—what’d I do?”

She shook her head quickly as her smile widened. “You laughed. You _really_ laughed . . . .”

“I’ve laughed before,” he argued as an embarrassed flush crept up his cheeks.

“Not like that. I liked it.”

He frowned at the branch beneath them then slowly lifted his gaze to lock with hers. “Keh. Now about making you be quiet . . . .”

“What about Totosai?” she asked in a breathless whisper as he leaned forward, his eye closing, eyelashes fanning over his cheeks.

“He’s old. If he ain’t dead now, a few more minutes won’t kill him.”

‘ _No . . . I don’t guess they will . . . ._ ’ Kagome giggled as his lips claimed hers. “InuYasha?”

He sighed. “Be quiet, will ya?”

She giggled again. “But—”

“Wench!”

“But . . . we’re in a tree, and you said—”

He chuckled. “Sneaky _hentai_ wench.”

‘ _Hentai?_ ’ She frowned in confusion as he kissed her again. “Hentai? What do you mean?”

“Will you shut up and let me kiss you?”

She sighed as he nipped at her lower lip. “Oh . . . okay . . . .”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“InuYasha . . . is something wrong?” Totosai asked as he scratched his head thoughtfully.

InuYasha held out Tetsusaiga two inches in front of the swordsmith’s face. “Make it stronger, old man.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “InuYasha . . .”

Totosai leaned away and stared up into InuYasha’s face with a frown. “Could have sworn I already did that . . . didn’t I?”

“Don’t you think I’d know if you did something to my sword?” InuYasha asked pointedly.

Totosai nodded slowly. “You’d think . . . .”

“The only thing you did was put some sort of weird blue barrier on it. What is that, anyway?”

“Barrier?” Totosai repeated, scratching his belly. “Is there a barrier on it?”

InuYasha thumped the old swordsmith over the head with the sheathed sword. “Listen, you, I—”

“It should have been on her . . . or did I mess it up?”

“Barriers are nice and all,” InuYasha remarked, struggling to keep his tone even, “But it don’t make the bloody thing stronger, does it?”

“Doesn’t it?” he scratched his chin. “What were we talking about?”

“Ow,” InuYasha grumbled, slapping his hand against his chest. Peeling back the haori, a flattened Myouga fell out onto his palm. “Oh, it’s you. I should have known.”

“Ohh, InuYasha-sama . . . a pleasure, as always.” Puffing himself back into his normal shape, the flea youkai sat up and shook his head quickly to dispel any lingering dizziness.

“InuYasha,” Totosai interrupted, “draw Tetsusaiga.”

InuYasha sighed, dropping Myouga onto the ground as he pulled Tetsusaiga out of the sheath and pointed the blade at Kagome. Just as before, the blue barrier surrounded her in a brilliant hue, and, just as in the forest, InuYasha noticed that the blue was a little brighter.

“Oh, impressive, InuYasha-sama!” Myouga remarked enthusiastically. “ _Very_ impressive . . . .”

“Huh?”

Totosai stared at Tetsusaiga, blinking in surprise. “Oh . . . looks like I did better than I thought . . . .”

“Well, I’m sure that InuYasha-sama did do some of it, himself,” Myouga commented with a cough.

“What are the two of you talking about?” Kagome cut in with a puzzled shake of her head.

Totosai was back to scratching his chin. “I forgot . . . .”

InuYasha growled and slammed Tetsusaiga back into the scabbard again. “Can you strengthen Tetsusaiga or can’t you?”

Myouga hopped onto Kagome’s shoulder, edging closer to the collar of her shirt. “Master Totosai already did that,” Myouga remarked. “It’s up to you to figure out how to unlock its true power.”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh. I hate it when geezers talk in riddles,” he remarked as he flicked the flea off Kagome’s shoulder. “And stay away from Kagome’s blood, damn it.”

Myouga hopped back. “It’s the truth! You’ve already started to unlock its potential! Just finish it, and you’ll have done it!”

“Finish what?”

Myouga shook his head. “Alas, InuYasha-sama . . . that’s something we cannot tell you.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Fat lot of help you are, Myouga. You’re _completely_ useless, you know it? My old man should have squashed you long ago.”

“Maybe you should ask Kagome for help. She’s got a more logical brain than you do,” Totosai spoke up at last.

InuYasha thumped the old man with his fist for his unnecessary opinion. “Come on, Kagome. These two are useless.”

Myouga hopped onto Totosai’s knee as the hanyou and miko left. They watched in silence as InuYasha carefully settled Kagome against his back before taking off at an all-out run. Myouga sighed. “If only the Inu no Taisho could see him now . . . I think he’d be proud.”

Totosai nodded slowly. “Do you think he’ll figure it out?”

Myouga sighed again. “Not a chance . . . .” He suddenly chuckled, “Then again, I must admit that the barrier’s color did surprise me . . . .”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Maybe you just have to use it more in battles?”

“Keh! What do you _think_ I’ve been doing?” InuYasha demanded with a snort.

She sighed. “It doesn’t really make sense, you know. You’ve not done anything different, have you?”

InuYasha sighed, too. “Not a fucking thing.”

She pushed herself further up to rest her chin on his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll help you.”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I have a feeling this is something I should figure out for myself.”

“But you don’t have to.”

‘ _She really is more than I deserve_ ,’ he thought with a smile as she laid her cheek against his shoulder. He sped up. He wanted to get her back to the village before nightfall. His smile faded into a frown. ‘ _She trusts me to keep her safe, but she’s right . . . as much as I want to protect her all the time, there’ve been too many times when no one’s been there to save her . . . ._ ’

“Kagome?”

“Hmm?”

He could tell from her tone that she was almost asleep. He smoothed out his movements to aide her. “I want you to have Kaede train you.”

“I thought you said you didn’t want me to do that.”

“I changed my mind. I just . . . .”

She giggled softly. “I know.”

“Keh.”

She squeezed his shoulders. “Thank you.”

“Keh.”

“I don’t want to train, but I think I should.”

‘ _She has to be safe . . . . Then I can try to make sure she never has to use what she learns_.’ His frown darkened as he remembered what had brought her back early, in the first place. “We need to go to your time,” he remarked.

“We do?”

“Keh. If I can’t find Katosan here, I’ll just find him there.”

“Is that a good idea?”

“I don’t have a choice, Kagome. He’s not going to threaten you. No one is. Don’t be scared.”

She snuggled closer, and her voice was tinged with the drawl of sleep. “I’m not scared when I’m with you.”

His smile returned as he ran through the forest with the miko.

 

 

 

 

 


	49. Food for Thought

“Stop pacing, you’re making me nervous.”

InuYasha glanced over at Kagome but continued to stride the length of the plush library and back again. His feet didn’t make a sound as he wandered over the polished marble floor. Kagome watched him for another moment then shook her head with a sigh.

Nibori hid his amusement behind a raised hand. He filled a glass with water and extended it to his uncle. “Here. Father said he will be right with you.”

InuYasha glowered at the glass. “Keh. I’m not thirsty.”

Nibori shrugged and lifted the glass to his own lips. “Did you think I’d poison my own uncle, Uncle?”

InuYasha gritted his teeth together in a vicious snarl. “Stop fucking calling me that, will you?”

Nibori blinked as he stared at InuYasha with a completely blank expression. “But you are my uncle . . . I should treat you with the proper respect—Father insists.”

“That bastard would,” InuYasha snorted. “Anything to piss me right off.”

Kagome sighed.

The doors opened, and Sesshoumaru, with Leikizu on his arm, swept into the library. As before, the youkai didn’t even acknowledge his half-brother as he stepped over to a thick leather chair and sank down while his wife wandered over to the sideboard to pour her mate a drink.

“What brings you here, InuYasha?” Sesshoumaru asked, settling back in the chair and idly flicking his claws.   Kagome gritted her teeth as his knuckles popped in an obscenely loud way.

InuYasha glanced over at her then grimaced—she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He shot across the room and sank down on the floor in front of her, his meaning obvious: ‘ _Stay the fuck away from her_.’ She reigned in the urge to reach forward and rub his ear, figuring that he wouldn’t be impressed with the show of affection at the moment.

“Good heavens, baka! Do you think that you’re about to be attacked here? If I’d wanted you dead that badly I’d have taken care of that quickly enough the first time you were here.”

“Like I fucking trust you,” InuYasha snarled.

Kagome rolled her eyes and rubbed the ear. InuYasha shot off the floor and pinned her with a dark look but didn’t move away. He reached over and tweaked her nose, drawing a chuckle from the oldest youkai in the room. Nibori’s eyebrows lifted, and Leikizu simply smiled. Kagome frowned as she tried to look at the end of her nose then brushed at it, wondering if she had a speck of dirt or something stuck to it.

“What the hell’s so funny?” InuYasha demanded, glaring at his brother.

Sesshoumaru deliberately lifted his glass to his lips before answering. “Not a thing. Was there something you wished to ask me, or did you simply miss your brother?”

“Keh! Fat fucking chance. Where’s Katosan, and don’t try to tell me you don’t know ‘cause I ain’t buying it.”

“Why would you wish to see Katosan?” Sesshoumaru countered amicably enough. “If he is here, in this time, then it would mean that he is still back there, in the past. Why not seek the one against whom you hold a grudge?”

“This one’s more convenient. Just tell me where to find him.”

Sesshoumaru rubbed his forehead. “I cannot do that, baka. You’ve no need to see him in this time.”

“The hell I don’t,” InuYasha growled. “He came to the shrine. He won’t do it again or I’ll rip his fucking head off. I might do that, anyway . . . kill him here _and_ kill him there . . . .”

Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly and turned to stare at his mate. “Leikizu, would you mind taking the Miko and showing her around?”

Kagome shrugged and started to rise when Leikizu motioned for her to follow.

InuYasha growled, grabbing Kagome’s hand. “No.”

“She’s perfectly safe here,” Nibori remarked with a smile that was meant to reassure InuYasha.

“No.”

“It’s okay,” Kagome said, placing a placating hand on InuYasha’s chest. “I’ll be fine.”

He looked like he wanted to argue with her but in the end, he nodded once and let go. “It’s commendable, the way you watch out for Kagome,” Nibori remarked softly as the door closed behind the women.

“She’s my responsibility,” InuYasha answered.

“Just a responsibility?” Sesshoumaru countered.

InuYasha didn’t answer.

Sesshoumaru’s eyes shifted to lock with InuYasha’s. “As for Katosan, if you killed Katosan now, then went back to your time and killed him then, the only person who would remember this would be you because you killing him in the past would erase his existence in the future.” At the confused look on InuYasha’s face, Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “You can only kill someone once, baka. Don’t be dense.”

InuYasha crossed his arms together. “I’d still _remember_ it twice, so it would count.”

Drumming his claws against the thick arm of the chair, Sesshoumaru nodded once. “I will ask Katosan to stay away from the shrine. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

InuYasha wasn’t satisfied. “Hell, no. I want his ass.”

Sesshoumaru slowly shook his head, gaze narrowing on his brother. “This I cannot allow.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I am Inu no Taisho, and as such, I am the one responsible for making certain that the rest of the world never learns that youkai still exist. To sanction your actions would undoubtedly draw notice . . . or were you going to sully your hands with a modern firearm? Slayings via mechanical weaponry barely raises an eyebrow in this day and age. If you were to hack Katosan up with Tetsusaiga I guarantee that would draw more attention that any of us are willing to deal with. Do you understand me?”

InuYasha glared at Sesshoumaru. “I’m not a fucking pup,” he growled.

“Then do not behave like one.”

“Do you know what that rat-bastard threatened to do?” InuYasha asked, his voice quiet despite the deadly serious set of his features. “He threatened Kagome. He threatened to rape her. He has no fucking honor. He deserves to die.”

Sesshoumaru leaned forward, glaring _toward_ his brother though not _at_ his brother. “Then by all means, go after him, if you feel you must. But you must do so in the past. Do you understand?”

“I should have known you were still a complete bastard,” InuYasha remarked. “Fine. If you won’t tell me where he is, I’ll find him on my own.”

“I said I would tell him to stay away from your miko.”

InuYasha rounded on Sesshoumaru, drawing Tetsusaiga in one fluid motion as he leveled it at his brother’s heart. “Not fucking good enough.”

Sesshoumaru stared from his brother’s face to the sword then back again. “Put that away, baka. I will not fight you here.”

“Uncle . . . ?”

InuYasha’s glare shifted to the side to meet his nephew’s interested expression. Staring at Tetsusaiga with a fascinated glint in his eyes, Nibori shook his head. “Tetsusaiga . . . .”

“Keh, it’s blue,” InuYasha snorted. “So what?”

“What have you done to the Sword of the Fang?” Sesshoumaru asked mildly.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “I ain’t done a damn thing.”

Sesshoumaru stood slowly, completely ignoring Tetsusaiga. “So you don’t know why it’s blue then. I see.”

InuYasha dropped Tetsusaiga back into the scabbard with a dissatisfied growl. “Totosai did something to it,” he snarled, knowing Sesshoumaru was trying to bait the information out of him and unable to stop himself despite that.

“Ah, Totosai. That makes sense . . . .”

InuYasha had the distinct feeling that Sesshoumaru knew exactly why Tetsusaiga’s blade had turned blue. He gave a mental snort. ‘ _Damned if I’ll ask him . . . ._ ’

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“So Waku’s dead,” Leikizu said as the two wandered through the mansion to the sunroom beyond the kitchen.

Kagome nodded. “Did you know him?”

Leikizu shook her head as she sank down in one of the lounge chairs and gestured to another for Kagome to do the same. “Not at all. He was dead by the time I was born.”

Kagome frowned as she sat down beside the female youkai. “You sound as though you should have known him.”

Leikizu shrugged. “He was my brother.”

With a soft gasp, Kagome stared in disbelief at Leikizu. “I’m sorry,” she said, wincing when she realized that she was just as responsible for the youkai’s demise as were Miroku—and InuYasha.

Leikizu smiled wanly and turned her gaze out the huge windows that lined the room. “Don’t be. Waku chose his own path, and Waku made his mistakes. My parents were saddened by the loss, of course. But by the time he’d died, Waku was no longer considered their son.” Intercepting Kagome’s shocked expression, Leikizu sighed. “From what I’ve gathered, Waku had poor judgment in choosing his friends.”

“He was looking for InuYasha.”

Leikizu nodded. “Yes . . . he’d fallen in with Norimitsu.”

“Norimitsu . . . .” Kagome shuddered as she remembered the cold eyes of the black haired youkai, the feel of his claws pressed against her throat. “He tried to snatch me that night, too.”

Leikizu sighed, a sudden look of sadness coming over her features. She shook her head slowly, and Kagome wondered why the woman seemed so forlorn. “Did you know Norimitsu, too?”

Leikizu shook herself out of her reverie and blinked a few times as her eyes focused on Kagome once more. “He’s Sesshoumaru’s uncle.”

Kagome gasped. “Sesshoumaru’s . . . ?”

“It’s a long story. There is no love loss between them, in case you’re wondering. Sesshoumaru never met him until the day he showed up to challenge the Inu no Taisho. He didn’t know then that Norimitsu was his relation.”

“If he’s Sesshoumaru’s uncle then Norimitsu was his mother’s brother?”

Leikizu nodded. “Exactly. Norimitsu blamed the Inu no Taisho for his sister’s death, and then despised him for mating a human. That they’d chosen to have InuYasha . . . well, you can imagine.”

“So that’s why he was after me . . . to get to InuYasha . . . .”

“It wasn’t simply InuYasha. Norimitsu comes after Sesshoumaru to this day. He appears, they fight, and he leaves again after Sesshoumaru bats him around a few times.”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “But why? If Sesshoumaru is his nephew . . . ?”

Leikizu chuckled softly. “Norimitsu sees none of his sister in Sesshoumaru, and since Sesshoumaru bested him in their initial meeting . . . Norimitsu sees only the Inu no Taisho in Sesshoumaru.”

Kagome sighed. If Norimitsu had lived through the five hundred year span, then how many times would he come after InuYasha?

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“ _‘You posed an interesting challenge to me. On the one hand, you were the child I adored, with the depth in your eyes, the strength in your heart, you were a wonder to me. On the other hand, you were obstinate to a fault, and from early on, you possessed your father’s temper. He told me once that it had taken him centuries to learn control over his fury, and the man I knew had that control. But in you, I saw what your father was like in those earlier times. As much as I adore you, InuYasha, I also hope you learn to manage this aspect of yourself. Fury and rage, when controlled, can be a great asset. Running around in a constant state of anger, however, can be a disability_.’ ”

Kagome leaned back to stare up at InuYasha. Eyes closed with a completely blank expression as he leaned against Goshinboku’s trunk, he appeared as though he wasn’t listening. She knew better. “Hear that, InuYasha? You’ve got to learn to control your temper.”

“Keh. You’d better quit wiggling around or you’re going to fall, and I’m not catching you.”

She reached up to tug his ear. He leaned to the side and flicked her nose. “You wouldn’t let me fall, and you know it,” she shot back with a grin, turning enough to better stare at the hanyou.

“Try me, sneaky wench.”

“If you let me fall, I’d hurt myself, and if I hurt myself, then I couldn’t kiss you.”

“You’re not kissing me now.”

She caught the hint of sulkiness in his tone. With a giggle, she kissed his cheek before turning her attention back to the diary again.

He heaved a sigh.

“ ‘ _Your father told me of the habits of the youkai before he died. Many nights he sat up, explaining things that he said I should know because he wanted to make sure that I knew everything so that I could pass the information to you over the years to come. I’m glad he did this_.

“ ‘ _One of the first things he told me was about youkai discipline. Because youkai in general are stronger and given more to violence when goaded, it had become a trait of the youkai to accept minimal corrections in dealing with children, and so long as the punishment was understood to be such, then it worked. Through the passage of time, the standard practice became instinctive, and as such, youkai young recognized the reprimand for what it was right away. Generally administered to children or even to one’s mate, the curious form of punishment was actually more of a sign of disapproving affection that actual displeasure with the errant one. Amusing, now that I think about it. You were taunted and yelled at by the villagers so often and never shed a tear even when they hurt your feelings.   When I would tweak your nose with the index finger, however, it always—_ always _—made you cry and rendered you inconsolable for hours afterwards. Consequently, it was a punishment rarely warranted but one that I did have to use with you from time to time_.’ ”

Kagome stopped reading as a thoughtful frown surfaced on her face. Slowly she turned to face the hanyou as a mounting sense of suspicion grew. “You’ve been _disciplining_ me?” she demanded with a scowl.

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably. “Keh.”

She saw right through his bravado as her eyes narrowed. “You have!”

“Not intentionally . . . I didn’t know . . . .”

She shot him a dark look. “Didn’t know, huh?”

He sat back, grabbing onto the branch below to steady himself, unsure what to say, and for some reason, he had trouble meeting her gaze. ‘ _I didn’t know what that meant_ ,’ he thought with a frown. ‘ _It just, I dunno . . . it seemed like the right thing to do . . ._ .’ He shook his head slowly. “What’s the big fucking deal? It didn’t hurt, did it?”

Her shoulders slumped, and she stared at her hands in her lap as her cheeks reddened slightly. “No, but you did that in front of Sesshoumaru and his family, and they thought it was funny . . . and Kouga, too, like I’m a child.”

“Keh! You’re hardly a pup, wench.”

He felt her eyes rise to stare at him. He felt himself blush, too. Suddenly, she giggled. “And here I thought it was a show of affection,” she remarked.

His cheeks reddened a little more as his mother’s words came back to him, ‘ _Generally administered to children or even to one’s mate, the curious form of punishment was actually more of a sign of disapproving affection . . . ._ ’

“InuYasha? Why are you blushing?”

“Keh! I’m not,” he maintained stubbornly as his cheeks felt the burn.

Kagome gasped softly as she obviously remembered Izayoi’s words, too. The burn became an inferno. “It was, wasn’t it?” she asked softly.

“Was what, wench?”

She scooted closer as the scent of her filled his senses. He gripped the branch tighter. “InuYasha . . . you love me?”

‘Monk-in-pain’ morphed into ‘fire-rat-haori’-red as he stubbornly lifted his chin a notch. “Keh! You love me, too, remember?”

He was knocked back against the tree trunk as Kagome launched herself straight against his chest, arms circling around his neck as her lips locked on his.

The touch of her mouth on his was like a bolt of lightning shooting straight through his body. The impact hit him hard, rattled through his mind and body as the sudden vulnerability brought on by the admission gave way to a heady sense of power. Her mouth breathed against him, sucked him in to a place where sensation overrode coherent thought, where the only word he dared to utter was her name. The young woman, the frail human, the soul with the heart that was as large as the sea encompassed him, overshadowed him. Suspended in a place where tears were an unknown force, locked in the arms of the woman he protected, he let her defend him against the swelling tide of tormenting passion that ripped through him and left him bleeding.

Rising up on her knees to scoot forward enough to straddle his thighs, Kagome arched against him, held his face as she kissed him. Powerless to stop her, InuYasha wrapped his arms around her, held her close, pressed against her through the irritating barrier of clothing. She moaned, letting the sound be swallowed by his mouth as he growled low in his throat. His body strained against hers, willing her to understand what she didn’t give him a chance to say as she rained kisses down on him. Her tongue licked at his lower lip, and he shuddered. She gently sucked on his lips, and he groaned.   Her daring grew as his control waned, her hands shoved aside his haori, his undershirt, and suddenly his arms were free in the gentle spring warmth of unconfined air.

She touched him, running her small hands all over him as he struggled to regain her lips that she was using to ignite little fires along his collarbone. He whined softly as she traced the contours of his chest, of the shallow vale over his heart.   Her tongue flicked out to taste his skin as he tugged at the zipper that held her blouse closed, silently thanking every entity he knew for the simple fastening. Buttons would have driven him insane . . . . She arched back, head falling, eyes closed as his palm closed over her breast, the thin fabric of her bra the only barrier against the heat that radiated off her skin and captured him. He dragged her forward, mouth fastening on the silky flesh at the base of her neck, sucking lightly, fangs grazing gracefully over her. She clutched his shoulders, her nails biting into him. He nipped at her but instead of the gentle reprimand that was intended, her nails dug in more fiercely.

The blood in his veins burned hot, fierce. The singe of his inner youkai called to her. Her blood answered as her pulse quickened even more. Through the trace remnants of conscious thought, InuYasha knew. ‘ _She’s my mate . . . she’s my heart_.’ Seconds later, his mouth dropped against her, tracing the rising swell of her breast. The satin bra held the heat of his breath as Kagome’s body erupted in shivers, in waves of heat that rushed at him, fused with him, burned him. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes she surged against him, pressing herself even closer as her scent spiked. He paused for a moment, long enough to gain control of his baser instincts, long enough to subject his desire to his will when all he wanted to do was claim her.

She pushed on his shoulders, pushed him away. A moment’s confusion was forgotten as she pressed against him, her flesh meeting his as she leaned up to kiss him. Tender, soft, gently giving, Kagome had the power to transform a simple act into something far more beautiful than InuYasha had ever imagined. Lost in the sweetness of that one kiss, he held her to him, afraid to let her go.

His head spun with the effects of that kiss. Her lips were swollen, quivering, yet she demanded more as she accepted his tongue. Trying to remember to breathe, fighting a losing battle with inner will, InuYasha gave himself up to sensation, a delicious wash of flowing heat as he slowly felt himself coming undone. The sweltering concentration of her kiss coupled with the movements of her body against him drew a visceral growl, a sound borne of necessity, of desire, of the bending of his will to hers.

The shocking sensation of falling did little to dispel the haze around his mind, did nothing to quell the ache in his body and soul, did not make sense to him since Kagome was still kissing him. Landing, though, did put a stop to that kiss, and InuYasha grunted and groaned as he landed hard, flat on his back, with Kagome safely atop his chest. She moaned, too, but didn’t move right away.

InuYasha blinked in confusion as the haze receded and the grim realization sank in. “Fuck! We fell out of the tree?”

Kagome’s giggle quickly escalated into a full-out laugh as she sat up and slid off him.

He wasn’t nearly as amused as she was, and he pushed himself up on his elbows with a grimace of pain—and frustration. “I think I broke something,” he muttered.

Kagome laughed harder.   InuYasha gulped, staring at her breasts, heaving against the flimsy satin bra. He sat up the rest of the way, and, with trembling fingers, he fumbled with her zipper. He couldn’t get the bottom of the contraption to line up properly. Finally she took pity on him and gently pushed his hands aside to fasten the blouse herself. “I can’t believe . . .” she gasped out, “that we fell . . . out of . . . Goshinboku!”

“Keh! I told you trees weren’t made for. . . that,” he growled but smiled anyway.

She suddenly turned serious as she stared at him for long moments. He tried to figure out what she was thinking but the odd look eluded him. “Next time,” she finally said, her voice a husky whisper, “maybe we should try that on the ground.”

He groaned, long and loud, as Kagome scampered to her feet and snatched his shirt and haori off the ground, dropping them on his chest before she blew him a kiss and ran into the shrine.

 

 

 

 

 


	50. Training

Kagome groaned as she sank into the water with a tired sigh. “Every single muscle in my body hurts,” she stated ruefully.

Sango grimaced for her friend. “It’s hard, this miko’s training, isn’t it?”

Kagome sighed. Kaede was a veritable drill sergeant, rousing Kagome long before dawn to meditate then barraging her with tasks all day long designed to strengthen her spiritual power. In the three weeks since her training had begun, it was sheer determination that kept her persevering. Because she hadn’t been trained as a miko from a young age, the training was much, much more demanding than it should have been. In any case, Kagome felt like she was ready to flop over and die by the time night came and she could drop on her pallet and sleep.

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to admit to anyone else, how difficult the training was, either. Sango knew, only because she’d seen the numerous bruises on Kagome’s back and hip she’d gotten as she worked with Kaede, sharpening her dodging skills. They’d recruited Shippou for that, and the kitsune had reluctantly agreed to help by shooting fox fire at Kagome, but only after numerous assurances that InuYasha would not pummel the daylights out of the kit for doing so—and a few dozen boxes of pocky. She still had a burn mark on her right thigh from a ball of blue flame that she hadn’t been quick enough to dodge.

“It’s not so bad,” she assured Sango with a forced smile.

The youkai exterminator saw right through that answer. “How are you going to explain all of this to InuYasha? He knows you better than anyone. You really don’t think you’re going to be able to convince him you’re fine, do you? He’s hanyou. He’ll probably be able to tell that you’re hurting by smelling you.”

Kagome shrugged. “He said I could train,” she hedged.

Sango shook her head. “He said you could train. He never said you could nearly kill yourself doing it.”

With a sigh, Kagome reached up to grasp the Shikon no Tama and closed her eyes. Part of her new routine was to purify the jewel every day, so that it didn’t become tainted. Thanks to Mrs. Higurashi, a new chain had been purchased, and Kagome wore the jewel around her neck again.

Sango gasped softly as Kagome let go of the jewel. “Kagome?”

Kagome made a face as she reached for her body wash. “Hmm?”

“The jewel,” Sango said quietly, eyes wide, full of awe. “It’s nearly white.”

Kagome frowned and lifted the Shikon no Tama to stare at it. Sango was right. The pink inside the jewel was diminished though traces of the color still filtered around inside. “I wonder what that means?”

Sango shook her head. “It means that you’ve nearly completely purified it. It has been said that the fully purified jewel will turn white just before it is dispelled.”

For some reason, Kagome wasn’t pleased with that. Myouga’s words came back to her, words spoken so long ago, ‘ _That’s just it, my lord! You mustn’t destroy the jewel, not yet; not until after you’ve completed your task!_ ’

‘ _We’ve recovered his mother’s diary and read through a lot of it . . . was that what Myouga meant? Or do we need to_ _finish_ _reading_ _the_ _diary_ _first? And what will happen once the jewel is purified? What will happen to Sango and Miroku and Shippou? What will happen to InuYasha . . . and me?_ ’

Kagome sighed. She never liked to think about it, about what would happen once the Shikon no Tama was purified and gone.   Easy to think that things would go on as usual, but she knew in her heart that it wasn’t ever meant to be that way. Where would she be? And InuYasha? Panic welled up inside her, fear so strong even she could almost smell it. ‘ _Don’t think about it, Kagome . . . Don’t worry about that, because worry won’t change anything that is or isn’t meant to be . . . ._ ’

“I wonder if InuYasha will be back soon,” Sango said, noticing the change in Kagome’s mood and trying to raise her spirits by mentioning the hanyou.

It had the opposite effect, though, she noticed with a wince as Kagome’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. Rising abruptly, Kagome floundered toward shore and struggled into her clothes without drying off.

“Kagome?” Sango called after her as she got up to follow.

Kagome waved over her shoulder and ran off into the woods.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

InuYasha gnashed his teeth in determination as the bear youkai lumbered toward him. Drawing Tetsusaiga and raising it over his head as he leaped into the air, he felt the winds rise to wrap around the blade. With a slight smile of satisfaction, he arced the blade with a yell of, “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” as yellowish-white flames shot through the void straight toward the hulking beast. The bear reared back and roared, and the manufactured wind blew the flames off course as he swung his huge paw, catching InuYasha in the chest and sending him careening back.

InuYasha landed on the ground and slid another fifty feet, leaving ruts in the earth from the momentum. “All right, bastard . . . come on!”

The bear lunged again. InuYasha flipped back away from the dangerously wide paw. He landed and pushed off the ground as he raised Tetsusaiga over his head again. “ _Kongousou— ha!_” he bellowed, snapping the blade before him as diamond spears erupted from it, streaking over the ground and impaling the bear youkai in the head.

The bear shrieked once then fell as his body disintegrated.

InuYasha wiped his face on his sleeve and stared at Tetsusaiga with a thoughtful frown. ‘ _The blade . . . it’s normal again . . . what the hell . . . ?_ ’ With a sigh, he dropped the sword into the scabbard and, after one last glance around to make sure there was nothing else waiting for him, he took off, sprinting through the forest.

He still couldn’t find Katosan. ‘ _Shifty bastard! Where the fuck is he hiding?_ ’ he fumed as he leaped high, spotting the clearing where the Bone Eater’s Well stood in the distance, spotting Goshinboku. ‘ _Home . . . Kagome . . . ._ ’

He’d spent the better part of two weeks searching for the baka, another week for traveling in every conceivable direction looking for any traces of Katosan, and then home again, and it all added up to his being tired, irritable, impatient, and really just wanting nothing more than a few stolen minutes alone with Kagome. ‘ _Minutes, baka?_ ’

‘ _Shuddup_.’

‘ _Keh! Stop living in denial_.’

‘ _Thought I said to shuddup?_ ’

 _‘Tell her what you want_.’

‘ _Shut. Up._ ’

‘ _You afraid she’d say no? Or_ _are_ _you afraid she’d say she wants that, too?_ ’

‘ _Shuddup, damn it!_ ’

InuYasha shook his head. Definitely tired. Why else was he yelling at himself?

‘ _All right, sneaky wench_ ,’ he thought as he sprang off the ground again, ‘ _let’s see if you missed me . . . ._ ’

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“Houshi-sama, have you seen Kagome?”

Miroku looked up from the sickle he was sharpening into Sango’s concerned face. “No, not since the two of you went for your baths . . . how was that, by the way?”

Sango flushed but grinned. “It was very refreshing.”

He glanced around to see if they were being watched. Being satisfied that they didn’t have an audience—namely a much too interested kitsune pup, Miroku pulled the exterminator down for a quick kiss and nuzzle. “Want to get dirty?”

“Hentai-houshi!” Sango gasped, as she jerked back, hands flying to cup her cheeks as she gaped at Miroku.

He blinked innocently. “Was it something I said?” he asked. “By the way, Sango . . . ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red really is your color. You should wear it more often.”

Her jaw dropped as she darkened a little more and turned to stomp away. Miroku chuckled and got up to follow, sticking the sickle through his belt before falling in step beside the agitated young woman. “Where are we going?”

Sango shot him a deliberate look. “To find Kagome. Where else?”

He didn’t answer but the longing expression on his face was enough to make her smile.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Kagome stared down into the well with a sigh. She wasn’t going to use the warp, not to mention that InuYasha had expressly forbidden her from going back alone since Katosan knew where she lived, and since InuYasha didn’t trust Sesshoumaru to tell Katosan to stay away. Truthfully she wasn’t sure why she’d come here.

‘ _You know why you came here_ ,’ her mind prodded. Once more Kagome reached up and touched the jewel suspended by the thin gold chain.

She sighed again and sat down on the edge. ‘ _Fifteen years old . . . . That was a long time ago . . . before InuYasha, before . . . a lot of things. None of it makes sense anymore. Surely I can’t have come all the way here, done the things I’ve done, felt the things I’ve felt, if it wasn’t meant to mean something to me . . . and to him? But what if . ._ .’ she trailed off as she stared at the jewel again. ‘ _What if I’m not meant to be with InuYasha? What if . . . he doesn’t belong with me in my time, and I don’t belong here with him in his time? What then? Is there a place where we were meant to be?_ ’

Closing her eyes against the pain that swelled in her heart, she willed away the torment at the very idea that she didn’t belong with him. ‘ _If not with him, then where?_ ’

A silent sob welled up in her throat, choked her as she struggled to swallow it, to breathe. ‘ _InuYasha . . . where are you?_ ’

Wiping her tears with the back of a trembling hand as the other clutched the jewel tightly in her fist, she stared at it through a blur of tears. As her heart clenched, contracted, Kagome stared as the Shikon no Tama started to glow. Growing brighter and brighter with the what seemed like the steady beat of a drum, it raised off her palm, floated in the air as though suspended by invisible strands. ‘ _It’s . . . . No! It can’t! Not until I see InuYasha! Not until_ —”

“Oi, wench! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Startled out of her reverie, she whimpered as InuYasha lit on the ground next to her. He stared from her to the jewel and back again as he slowly reached out and covered the jewel with his own hand, forcing it down against her palm, forcing it dormant.

“What were you doing?” he asked quietly— _too_ quietly.

“I . . . I don’t know . . . I didn’t do anything . . . .”

“You can’t purify it yet,” he said as he suddenly reached for her, dragging her into the protection of his arms. “You can’t.”

Kagome closed her eyes. ‘ _He . . . he’s scared, too . . . he’s scared that if I purify the jewel, we’ll be separated . . ._ .’

“What if it happens?” she asked softly. “What if I finally do purify the jewel, and—”

“Keh! It won’t happen. I won’t let it.”

“InuYasha—”

“No! I won’t fucking let it happen that way! I won’t! If that means you never purify the damn thing, then you never purify it because I can’t . . . .” he trailed off with a sigh. He pulled her closer, hugged her tighter.

Kagome couldn’t help it. With a loud yelp, she pushed away from him. “I’m sorry. I was just—” she trailed off when she saw the hurt look on his face, the raw anguish. “InuYasha?”

He stepped back away from her. Kagome shook her head. “Wait, it’s not what you think,” she blurted. “I wasn’t pushing you away! You just squeezed a bruise, and—”

The expression on his face changed when he heard the word ‘bruise’. The pain was replaced by a fierce anger as he stepped closer again and started sniffing. When he reached over to pull up her blouse, Kagome backed away. “It’s okay, I promise! Just a few little bruises . . . .”

His eyes shifted from anger to flat-out rage, brightening to a flash of golden yellow, and he growled at her as he reached for her blouse again. “Don’t give me that! You fucking smell like you’ve been tossed around like an apple,” he snorted, tossing her blouse up as he turned her around to stare at her back. Kagome cringed and waited for the string of explicatives that she knew was coming. She didn’t have long to wait. After the first fifty swears, he finally got around to saying something she could respond to. “Who the hell did this to you?”

Reaching back to tug her blouse back down, she grabbed his arm as he stomped toward the forest path.   “InuYasha! It’s nothing! I’m fine! It’s part of the training!”

“The fuck it is!” he snarled as he jerked his arm free and kept walking.

Kagome ran around him, planting both of her hands in the center of his chest. He didn’t stop, and she back peddled as he kept moving. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Just sore.” He finally stopped but didn’t look at all happy. “I missed you.”

He stared at her for long seconds as his irritation dissipated. He caught her hand and dragged her down into his lap before pushing her forward and tossing her blouse back up over her shoulders. She wasn’t sure what she expected him to do but she gasped softly as his lips kissed each bruise.

She leaned into him as he took his time. Peeking over her shoulder, she blinked back sudden tears at the tender expression on his face. Eyes closed, concern furrowing his brow, he turned his face to lay his cheek against her back, as though he was trying to soothe her. She turned and pulled him close, his cheek resting over her heart. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Keh.”

“Did you find him?” she asked as she idly rubbed his ears. ‘ _I missed these_.’

He sighed and held still so that she could rub as much as she wanted. “Fuck, no. I don’t get it. He’s gotta be somewhere . . . . Left.”

Kagome smiled but moved her hand to rub behind his left ear. “Is that better?”

He caught her hands and lifted his chin. “Kiss me.”

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

“I’m sure she’s fine. She probably just wanted some time alone,” Miroku pointed out reasonably.

Sango shook her head as they headed into the forest. “You didn’t see her face, houshi-sama . . . she was really upset.”

“Likely worried about InuYasha . . . he’s been gone longer than I thought he would have been.”

“Maybe he’s having trouble locating Katosan.”

Miroku shrugged. “Could be. Could be that he’s had other trouble.” He frowned.

Sango caught the expression. “What?”

Miroku shook his head slowly. “He was gone over his night of vulnerability . . . .”

Sango sighed. “I know, and if we know, then you know Kagome had to have realized it, too.”

Miroku put a comforting arm around Sango’s shoulders. “That may be, but InuYasha’s had to deal with that all of his life. I think he’d be careful.”

“Houshi-sama, there are too many who know of it. Waku knew, and he’d only met InuYasha a few times. It makes no sense.”

“All we can do, Sango, is back them both in whatever capacity as we can, as their friends. There isn’t much more to it than that. I know that’s little in the way of consolation, but that’s really all we can do.”

Sango let her head fall against his chest for just a moment, accepting the comfort he offered as they headed toward the clearing. “Still, if Kagome needs someone to talk to, the least I can do is tell her that I’ll listen. She’s always been so good to me, with Kohaku . . . and other things . . . .”

Miroku suddenly grinned. “Other things? Meaning other people? Maybe a man? Maybe a _monk_? What was it Kagome called me? Ah, yes . . . the Monkinator?”

Sango lifted her gaze to stare across the meadow as she opened her mouth to retort. She gasped as her eyes widened in surprise just before she grabbed Miroku’s hand and dragged him toward the bushes.

“Dragging me off to have your way with me? All you had to do was ask,” he quipped.

Sango waved a hand at him as she peeked through the bushes. “InuYasha’s back,” she remarked with a slightly embarrassed grin.

Miroku leaned in to have a look, himself. The hanyou held the miko in his lap and was busy kissing her senseless, judging from the looks of it.   “You know, Sango, I think InuYasha might have the right idea for once.”

“You really want to kiss him?” she asked with a soft giggle.

Miroku affected a shudder. “Good heaven’s, Sango!” He tilted his head as he stared into her eyes. “I’d much rather kiss you . . . .”

“But . . . I didn’t ask.”

He groaned softly as he leaned forward, capturing her lips under his. Reveling in the sweetness that was Sango, he put a hand on her waist, drawing her just a little closer. She sighed, her lips opening under his as he took his time getting to know the intoxicating effects of her proximity. Like a giddy child, she rendered him incapable of thought, reeling in the essence of her.

She slowly, hesitantly reached up to circle his neck with her hands, holding him close, sighing against his lips as he kissed the corners of her mouth. He worshipped her silently, drawing her out, calling her soul home. She accepted what he offered and gave it back, tugging at the small tie that held his hair back. The cool length of it fell over her fingers, and she grasped it, holding his lips to hers as he forced layers of emotion on her, pressing down on her as her chest constricted and then exploded in a rush of primitive heat.

Vaguely aware as Miroku dragged her into his lap, against his chest, Sango felt her body fall against him, a sudden languor, a liquefying of her limbs that made resistance impossible. He accepted her acquiescence in silent triumph as his kiss deepened, shocking her and soothing her at the same time.

Sango kissed him back, shy, awkward, and wholly endearing. He tightened his arms around her, offered her his strength to support her, to guide her.   Her fingers touched his cheek, trembling and shaking, a beautiful sensation a wealth of emotion, of tactile contact and hesitant caresses.   Encouraging her with a soft moan against her lips, Miroku fanned the flames of her burgeoning desire with soft nibbles, with kisses lined by the tip of his tongue.

He kissed her without hesitation, fully, completely, without the monk’s mercy and with the true mark of the youkai exterminator, the fierceness that didn’t pause, didn’t falter. She kissed him back with the same quiet desperation of the woman who had lost so much but was willing to open herself to love again.

 

 

**_::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_ **

 

 

Soft sighs countered by gentle fingers that played along the nape of his neck, InuYasha shivered under the total oblivion that beckoned him.   She smelled so comforting, the wings of the dove, the power of the wild birds’ song that filled the clearing. Cherry blossoms fragranced the air, perfumed her hair, embraced the balmy skin, the gentle warmth that he held against his heart. She was everything that tugged the corners in his mind, the gentlest one with the will stronger than Tetsusaiga. Kagome possessed the rare ability to banish darkness and to melt the heart of the strongest, the innate ability given to her from the beginning, the art of healing. In conjunction with her giving nature, it was a lethal combination, and one he’d never change.

She filled his mind with a myriad of images, more thoughts than he could contain, a million times that he noticed the things about her that drew him. Bound to her so tightly that he couldn’t help but feel entirely lost, completely alone when she wasn’t near, he held her close, murmured against her ear, kissed her softly, kissed her because words alone weren’t enough. He’d never be able to tell her the things he felt, he’d never be able to say anything in a way that she would understand meant so much more, and he held her tenderly, gave her the side of him that she always wanted but that he couldn’t let her see, but maybe—just maybe—it was all right to show her instead.

Cradled in his arms, Kagome whimpered softly, her lips dancing against InuYasha’s like a butterfly’s wings.   He wanted to cherish and protect her at the same time he wanted to possess her. The warring emotions were battling inside him for dominance, and InuYasha shuddered as her fingers sank further into his hair.   “Kagome,” he whispered as he pulled back to rub his cheek against hers. She sighed happily.

Her fingers stroked the base of his neck as his eyes closed again. The action soothed him, calmed him, comforted him, tempered his desire to consume her. He turned his head to kiss her forehead. The subtle shift in the wind made him sit up straighter even as Kagome let her head fall against his chest.   ‘ _No fucking way_ ,’ he thought with a low growl. Kagome’s back stiffened. He clamped his hand over her mouth and stood, setting her on her feet and shooting her a warning look before he let his hand fall away.

“What is it?” Kagome whispered as she straightened her blouse.

InuYasha cautiously closed in on the bushes—on the source of the scents that he’d caught on the wind. Crossing his arms over his chest, InuYasha schooled his features and cleared his throat—loudly. “Keh! What the hell do you two think you’re doing?”

Sango gasped and shot to her feet, face bright red, as Miroku slowly stood up with an inscrutable expression on his features.   “InuYasha, that wasn’t very nice,” Kagome pointed out.

InuYasha glanced down at her, noticing that her cheeks were a nice shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red, too.

“You’re one to talk. We came looking to see how Kagome was, but she looked fine,” Miroku shot back.

It was InuYasha’s turn to flush. “I was looking at her _bruises_ ,” he snarled.

“With your _lips_?” Miroku countered.

“You two were _watching?_ ”

“Not watching, exactly . . . we happened across the two of you . . . that’s all, I swear . . . . Now, InuYasha . . . . No need for violence . . . .”

“Wanna bet, pervert?”

Kagome motioned for Sango to follow. The exterminator did, and the two women headed back toward the village, leaving the rapidly rising voice of the hanyou and the laughter of the Monkinator behind.

“So,” Sango said slowly as the stepped into the forest. “Now you know.”

Kagome cleared her throat nervously. “Yeah . . . and so do you.”

Sango kept her eyes on the path under their feet as her cheeks darkened a little more. “We haven’t—we aren’t—we’ve only . . . kissed.”

Kagome grinned a little self-consciously. “We haven’t . . . umm . . . .”

Sango suddenly giggled. “So . . . how’s that training going?”

Kagome’s grin widened. “You know, I think it’s going well . . . .”

 

 

 

 

 


	51. Choices

InuYasha stretched and rolled his head back as he yawned and glanced around the empty hut. ‘ _Keh! I can’t believe I slept so long!_ ’ he thought with a disgruntled frown as he stomped toward the door and outside into the beautiful spring morning.

Lifting his nose and sniffing the air, InuYasha turned to follow Kagome’s scent. She was close. Maybe she was training in Kaede’s garden . . . . “Ow!” he growled, slapping his neck and not at all surprised to see the flattened flea come away with his palm. InuYasha lifted Myouga carefully between his claws to glower at the youkai. “What do _you_ want?”

Myouga moaned miserably as he slowly puffed back up into his normal form. “InuYasha-sama! I was simply passing through and thought I’d stop in and have a bit of breakfast.”

“What do you think I am? A walking, talking smorgasbord? Scram.”

“Word has it that you were off seeking Katosan.”

At the mention of his name, InuYasha growled. “What do you know? Where is he?”

Myouga hopped to avoid InuYasha’s grasping claws. “I don’t know . . . no one has seen him in weeks . . . .”

“Keh! Tell me something I don’t know, Myouga.”

“Why do you seek him?”

InuYasha snorted again. “None of your business.”

“InuYasha-sama . . . .”

“He threatened Kagome, that’s what. He’ll stay the hell away from her.”

Myouga shook his head slowly. “He’s strong, that Katosan . . . . Be careful, InuYasha-sama. You can’t underestimate Katosan’s power.”

“Keh! I’ll introduce him to the power of my Tetsusaiga, and we’ll see who walks away,” InuYasha assured him. “Why is he so concerned about Musashi anyway? He’s not even from Musashi.”

Myouga sighed and sat down. “Your father held Musashi. Many—Katosan included—were outraged when the Inu no Taisho gave up his holdings for a human.”

“For Mother.”

“Yes, for your mother. I believe Katosan would simply have liked to see Musashi returned to the rule of the current Inu no Taisho.”

“Sesshoumaru? Keh! How would my taking over Musashi benefit that bastard?” Myouga didn’t answer right away. InuYasha could sense the flea’s reluctance. “Out with it.”

“It’s true that your taking Musashi wouldn’t strengthen Sesshoumaru, nor would it return Musashi to Sesshoumaru’s control. However, your death . . . .”

InuYasha stopped suddenly as Myouga’s words sank in. “So you’re saying that Katosan wanted me to take Musashi so that if I died Sesshoumaru could have it back?”

Myouga nodded slowly. “So it would seem.”

A low growl welled up in InuYasha’s throat. “Not fucking likely,” he ground out. “But why threaten Kagome?”

Myouga’s laugh was a little nervous and a lot condescending. “You don’t know why?”

“Would I ask if I did?”

“Because she’s your chosen, isn’t she?”

“Chosen?”

Myouga shook his head. “Your chosen! The one who will bear your children! Your _mate!_ That is what Katosan doesn’t want. If you were to have children, they would, by rights, inherit Musashi should you decide to claim it.”

The embarrassed flush at the mention of ‘mates’ was edged out only by the heat of anger that ripped through InuYasha’s mind. “So he _did_ threaten her because of me. _Damn it!_ ” Striding off with an obvious intention, Myouga had to grab into InuYasha’s kotodama rosary to keep from flying off the hanyou’s shoulder.

“InuYasha-sama? Where are you going?”

“Keh! I’m going to find Katosan and fucking shred him. I don’t care if I have to go all the way to hell to find him . . . and then I’m going to kill that rat-bastard of a brother of mine.”

“But InuYasha-sama! You can’t! Katosan hasn’t been seen! Looking for him now will be like looking for a grain of sand on the beach! Let him come to you!”

“What makes you so sure he’d do a stupid thing like that?”

Myouga seemed relieved that InuYasha was at least listening a little bit. “Because he hasn’t given up that you can be convinced to go after Musashi! Why else would he threaten Kagome-sama?”

InuYasha hated to agree with anything Myouga said. But the flea did make a good point. He’d been out searching for Katosan for weeks and had come up with nothing. Still, he hated to have to wait to be sought out. It was weak and pathetic . . . .

“Work on unlocking Tetsusaiga’s power, InuYasha-sama! Strengthen your sword before Katosan comes to find you!”

InuYasha growled at the flea once more. “You know, I’d love to do that. Unfortunately, two old codgers won’t tell me a damn thing about what I have to do about it.”

“So . . . you haven’t figured out the secret of the Aoirotoku.”

“The what?”

“Aoirotoku . . . the Blue Shield barrier.”

InuYasha dumped the flea into the dirt without missing a step. Myouga hopped his way up to InuYasha’s shoulder before he was left behind. “You know, Myouga, I’d figure it out a lot faster if you’d just tell me this _secret_.”

Myouga edged closer to InuYasha’s neck. “A technique only means something to you if you must struggle to learn it.”

“Keh! Says you. If it makes Tetsusaiga stronger, then I’m all for it. Just tell me what I gotta do, will you?” He glanced down at his shoulder and snorted. “Bite me, and I’ll make sure you never suck blood again, leech.”

Myouga sighed and backed away from InuYasha’s neck. “It’s something you must discover for yourself,” the vassal maintained. “I can’t tell you! I promised the Inu no Taisho that I let you figure it out, yourself!”

InuYasha stopped short to round his incredulous glare on the flea youkai. “Are you telling me that my old man _wanted_ you to do something to Tetsusaiga, not tell me what you did, and that I’m just supposed to figure it out all by myself?”

Myouga nodded quickly. “Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right . . . .”

“Keh!” InuYasha flicked the flea off his shoulder as he continued to follow Kagome’s scent. ‘ _Un-fucking-believable! My old man has some grudge against me now, too? How the hell am I supposed to be able to figure out how to unlock Tetsusaiga’s potential if no one will clue me in as to what it is I’m supposed to fucking do?_ ’ he fumed.

“InuYasha-sama!” Myouga called as he bounced after the hanyou. “Oh, the life of a flea . . . .”

Stopping at the empty field behind Kaede’s hut, InuYasha frowned as he watched Kagome. Standing in the middle of the meadow with her eyes closed, hands folded before her, he was amazed to see her suddenly surround herself in a bright pinkish-white hue.   “Such power, InuYasha-sama!” Myouga remarked enthusiastically as he bounced his way up to InuYasha’s shoulder once more. “Beautiful, tasty, and powerful . . . a dangerous combination, eh, InuYasha-sama?”

“Keh.”

“Use Tetsusaiga, InuYasha-sama! Aoirotoku! Aoirotoku!”

“Huh?”

“The barrier! Use Tetsusaiga to cast the barrier on her!”

InuYasha frowned in confusion but drew the rusty sword anyway. The last time he used Tetsusaiga, the blade hadn’t changed color at all . . . . “I don’t think that’s working anymore, Myouga. On the way back from looking for Katosan—” InuYasha cut himself off as the sword’s blade shone blue again. Myouga chuckled happily. “What the hell is going on?”

Myouga’s chuckling turned into an extremely happy, almost devious, laugh. “InuYasha-sama, I’m truly impressed!”

InuYasha didn’t hear Myouga’s words as a flash of blue flame came hurling at the unaware miko. “Kagome!” InuYasha bellowed as he dashed forward. “Move!”

InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga with everything he possessed as Kagome started and dove out of the way. The Kaze no Kizu flashed out of the blade and sped across the field tearing up the earth and leaving the singed grass blowing away from the lines of flame. ‘ _I don’t smell anything strange . . . then what_ . . . ?’

Shippou popped up between the scalded streaks of grass and bounded straight toward him, his little face twisted in an indignant sneer. “ _InuYasha no baka!_ ” the kit screeched as he launched himself at the hanyou’s chest. “What were you trying to do? _Kill_ me?”

InuYasha pulled the kitsune off his chest and held him up, nose to nose. “If you tell me that you _intentionally_ shot your fox-fucking-fire at Kagome I _will_ cook and eat you!” InuYasha snarled.

Shippou paled slightly and bit into the hanyou’s hand to gain his release then skittered over to Kagome, who was slowly standing back up with a grimace of pain. “InuYasha—”

“Stay out of it, wench!” he growled as he advanced on Shippou. Shippou dove between Kagome’s feet, his little body shaking in fear. “Don’t even try to defend the little menace! Get out here, runt!”

“K-K-K-Kagome!”

“InuYasha! He’s helping me!”

InuYasha blinked, his expression blank. ‘ _Keh! She did_ not _just say_ —’

“I asked him to help me with my training,” Kagome explained in a soft, soothing tone.

 _‘Keh! She did! She_ did _just fucking say_ —’

“He’s been a tremendous asset, InuYasha,” Kaede said as she slowly made her way to the gathering.

InuYasha’s glower shifted slowly from one face to the next, stopping on Shippou as he tried in vain to contain his growing rage. The memories of Kagome’s pain, of the black and blue marks on her back assailed InuYasha. Child or not, Shippou should have known better, should have realized that Kagome might be tough, but she was still a human, and humans were frail. Instead of getting his anger under control, his fury escalated. The possibilities of what could have happened were enough to make him feel sick somewhere deep down. InuYasha’s growl escalated into an enraged snarl, and Shippou shrieked as InuYasha’s eyes flashed red with the beat of his heart. The kitsune took off as fast as his little legs could move.

The hanyou slammed Tetsusaiga into the scabbard as he sprinted after the kit. Kagome screamed for him to stop. InuYasha ignored her. ‘ _That damn brat! He could have hurt her! Have they all lost their fucking minds?_ ’

Shippou kept shrieking as he darted past InuYasha in a wide arc, doubling back toward the women. InuYasha altered his course, set to intercept the kitsune.

“InuYasha! No! InuYasha! _Please!_ ” Kagome called as she tried to catch up with him, to make him stop. “InuYasha! _Osuwari!_ ”

“ _Fuck,_ _no!_ ” He fought against the effect of the kotodama rosary, fought against it harder than he ever had before. The weight of the spell dragged at him, and he bent over but kept moving. Rage carried him forward, and with a mighty jerk, he yanked himself upright and bellowed as he escaped the subjugation. Kagome’s gasp filled his ears as the strand snapped. The dark beads and white fangs flew in every direction in flashes of pink light, and InuYasha didn’t miss a step as he chased the kitsune.

Shippou tripped over a root sticking out of the ground.   InuYasha pounced and caught him. “ _She takes care of you, Shippou! What the hell were you doing?_ ”

He raised his fist to thump the kit a good one. Kagome caught his arm. “InuYasha! Please! No!”

Tears stood in Kagome’s eyes, coursed down her cheeks. The sight of those tears, the smell of the saltiness, hit him hard, and InuYasha bellowed, “ _Fuck_ —he’s got it coming! Don’t you know he could have seriously—?” Another scent registered, and with a suspicious look, InuYasha pinned Shippou with his leg as he reached over and pushed up the leg of Kagome’s shorts. The sight of the slow healing burn pushed him over the edge. The burn that was left from being hit with Shippou’s fox fire. In a flash of movement, InuYasha had Shippou smashed against the ground as he pulled on the arm Kagome still clung to.   “Damn you, Shippou! Did you _see_ what you did?”

“InuYasha, _no!_ It’s _my_ fault, not his! Listen to me, _please!_ He didn’t want to do it! We didn’t have a choice!”

“Get the hell off me!” InuYasha bellowed as he tried to jerk his arm loose again.

Shippou wailed. Kagome was crying in earnest. InuYasha’s head was pounding as he fought back the throb of his youkai blood. All the bruises on Kagome’s narrow back flashed through his mind again, unmercifully, unrelenting, magnified a thousand times as the beat increased. With a quick yank, he shook off Kagome’s hands, raised his claws, cracked his knuckles.

“Kagome! He’s transforming!” Shippou squealed as he struggled to escape the irate hanyou.

“Do it, Kagome!” Kaede demanded.

Kagome sobbed. “I can’t!”

“Ye must do it! It will not hurt him! He’s hanyou!”

“I _can’t!_ ”

With a vicious snarl, InuYasha slashed through the air. Kagome’s terror-filled scream, “ _No!_ ” filled his head as a flash of light engulfed him and Shippou, and InuYasha’s consciousness faded.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha heard voices. ‘ _Sango . . . Miroku . . . where . . . ?_ ’

He flinched as the throbbing in his head increased as he slowly woke up. Forcing his eyes open with a low groan, InuYasha blinked slowly as fuzzy images came into focus. “K’gome . . .?”

“You should rest a little longer, InuYasha. You took quite a hit.”

He groaned. Even Sango’s soft tone was enough to make his head spin in pain. Fighting back the waves of nausea that threatened to engulf him, he forced himself to speak. “Sango? Where’s Kagome?”

The youkai exterminator winced slightly and looked up at Miroku who was, oddly, wearing his monk’s robes again. “Kagome’s with Shippou.”

“Shippou . . . ?” InuYasha shook his head then groaned again. “What’s . . . matter with the runt?”

“He, um . . . he . . .” Sango trailed off, her voice wavering as she shook her head.

Vague images of chasing the kit . . . . The memory of seeing the seared flesh on Kagome’s thigh . . . . “Did I . . . _do_ something?”

“You were just angry,” Sango assured him. “Just angry . . . you didn’t mean to—” She muffled a sob with the back of her hand as she hurried from the room.

“Miroku, what didn’t I mean to do . . . ? What’s going on?”

Miroku sighed and hunkered down on the floor beside InuYasha’s pallet. “You caught Shippou training with Kagome, and before she could explain it to you, you went after Shippou.”

InuYasha closed his eyes. Everything was blurry, incoherent. The memories he had of it were distorted and heavy.   He knew somewhere in his mind that he’d done something, that he’d somehow fought against some power that wasn’t his, and that he’d won . . . but at what cost? “Go on.”

With another sigh, Miroku gathered his thoughts before he continued. “Kagome had to purify you, but you were holding onto Shippou.”

“What do you mean?” InuYasha demanded as his brain slowed to a crawl.

“Shippou was caught in the purification that Kagome meant to use to stop you.”

Swallowing a thickness in his throat, InuYasha nodded slowly. “How . . . how’s he?”

Miroku shook his head and suddenly looked away. ‘ _Shippou’s not . . . that’s why . . . Miroku’s wearing his robes again because they don’t think . . . . What have I done?_ ’

“. . . It doesn’t look good.”

InuYasha sat up straight, pure stubborn will keeping him from crashing right back down. He leaned on Miroku to stand and stumbled toward the door.

“InuYasha, no . . . you . . . no.”

InuYasha braced himself in the doorway and sadly stared at the monk. “No?”

Miroku shook his head slowly. “You don’t want to see him.”

InuYasha turned his head, stared at his claws only to see that they were gone. _‘Human . . . Kagome purified me . . . ? Shippou . . . ._ ’

Ignoring Miroku’s protests, InuYasha stumbled out of the tiny back room and into the main living area of Kaede’s hut.

He couldn’t see Shippou. Kagome sat on the floor, her back hunched over, shoulders slumped forward as though she was cradling something—or someone—in her arms. She rocked slowly, forward and back, mumbling something—or was she singing? He shuffled forward a little more then dropped to his knees beside Kagome. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she cradled the young kit to her chest, and the song she sang to him was InuYasha’s lullaby.

 _‘I did this?_ ’ InuYasha couldn’t breathe. As though the very air surrounding him was trying to stifle him, he stared in horror at what he had caused.   He hadn’t noticed before, how very tiny Shippou really was. He’d never remarked the absolute vulnerability of Shippou as a very young kitsune. With his huge emerald eyes, InuYasha had always just seen the kit as another of their group, somehow older, wiser, more a companion than a child. ‘ _Wake up, Shippou,_ ’ InuYasha begged. ‘ _Come on . . . you know you want to say it . . . InuYasha no baka . . . ._ ’

He flinched as he reached over to brush back Shippou’s mop of unruly auburn hair. The kit’s face was ashen, pale, breathing so shallow that for a moment, he was afraid that Shippou wasn’t, at all. Kagome glanced at him, stared at him, her pain a palpable thing. Still she sang as her gaze dropped back to the kit once more. InuYasha leaned in closer, slipped his arms around them both, and he joined in the song with her.

Kagome cleared her throat softly, turning her face to look at him. “I didn’t want to do it,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what else to do . . . .”

InuYasha shook his head slowly. “Don’t blame yourself. You only did what you had to do.”

She choked on a sob as she let her gaze drop to the kit in her arms. “If something happens to Shippou because of me—”

“Keh! It’ll never be because of you. I did this.” He sighed then reached for the kitsune. Kagome resisted for a moment. But she let him take Shippou before she slowly stood. “Where are you going?”

She sniffled and wiped at her still watering eyes. “I need to get some water,” she mumbled as she picked up the bucket and walked slowly out the door.

InuYasha scooted back against the wall and cradled Shippou in much the same way that Kagome had. He smoothed Shippou’s hair back off his face, tapped his cheeks gently. The guilt didn’t lessen as he stared at the child. It grew worse and worse, rising in him, thick and ugly, trying to choke him, trying to overwhelm him.

He shook the kit just a little, willing Shippou to open his eyes, to say something—anything. “Come on, runt . . . you’ve been through worse than this . . . . Remember? You helped save your father’s fur from the Thunder brothers . . . and Souten . . . . Remember her? Wake up, Shippou. I don’t wanna have to chase down all your girlfriends. Too damn many of them . . . you’re worse than the monk, runt . . . .” He forced a chuckle as his eyes burned, stung. ‘ _Open your eyes, Shippou . . . you gotta . . . for Kagome . . . for me . . . ._ ’

“InuYasha-sama? You’re human.”

InuYasha sighed and threatened to flick the flea when Myouga hopped onto Shippou’s chest.   “Leave the kit alone.”

“Why are you human?”

InuYasha shot the flea a dark look. “Kagome purified me. You didn’t see it?”

Myouga chuckled nervously.   “Did she? I must have missed that . . . .”

Gaze narrowing, InuYasha glowered at the flea. “You ran away from _that_? Are you sure you’re not a fucking _chicken_ youkai?”

“Well, I’d better be off. It was nice tasting you again, InuYasha-sama . . . .”

“Hold it.”

Myouga stopped and hesitantly glanced back up at him.   “My lord?”

“Taste him.”

“But you said—”

“I need you to taste him because I can’t smell him.”

Myouga thought it over a moment then nodded.   “Very well . . . .”

InuYasha watched as Myouga stuck Shippou. The kit didn’t react. After more of a drink than Myouga needed in order to assess Shippou’s condition, InuYasha deliberately raised his fingers, poised to flick the flea away. Myouga quickly let go and sat back with an indiscreet belch. “Well?” InuYasha demanded.

“He’ll live. Weak, he is. His youkai has been greatly diminished, but he’ll be fine.”

InuYasha sighed as just a little bit of relief ebbed over him. “You’d better be right about this, Myouga, or I’ll squash you like the pest you are.”

Myouga hopped quickly toward the door, mumbling under his breath about ‘ruffians’.

‘ _Wake up, Shippou . . . ._ ’ He lifted the kitsune and settled him against his shoulder, cradling him like Shippou was a baby.

Miroku knelt down beside him, leaning over to look into the youngster’s face. “He looks a little better.” The monk stared at InuYasha for a moment. “Can you tell me exactly what happened?”

“Ask Kagome,” InuYasha muttered.

Miroku shook his head. “I did. She wasn’t very coherent at the time.”

With a heavy sigh, InuYasha leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I saw Kagome training, and I saw a ball of blue fire coming at her. I thought it was a youkai attacking her . . . .”

“And you lost your temper and went after Shippou.”

InuYasha flinched. That Miroku hadn’t been accusing in his tone made him feel like an even bigger monster. “All I could see was Kagome in danger, and I . . . I transformed. If Kagome hadn’t stopped me when she did . . .” he trailed off, unable to finish his thought out loud.   He lifted his head and shifted his gaze to meet Miroku’s. “I had Tetsusaiga on me, and I still transformed.”

Miroku nodded. “It was your desire to protect Kagome, then, your fear that she might be in danger, and your rage that she never truly was.”

“She _could_ have been!”

With a sigh, Miroku nodded again. “Foxfire, at Shippou’s age . . . It’s strong even if it isn’t deadly.” The monk raised his hand in a silent prayer before speaking again. “Don’t blame yourself, InuYasha. If I were you and Kagome was Sango . . . I might have reacted the same way.”

InuYasha stared down at the unconscious kitsune. “That’s not good enough, Miroku. That’s not _nearly_ good enough.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha held onto Shippou all afternoon, refusing to let Kagome take him even though he hadn’t eaten a thing all day. Kagome paced around the fire pit with that look on her face that meant she wanted to say something but didn’t quite know how.

Miroku leaned closer to Sango. “I think they need to talk.”

“You, too?”

Miroku nodded. Sango got up and crossed to InuYasha, reaching out slowly to take the injured Kitsune. InuYasha snarled. Sango jerked her hands back as Miroku whacked InuYasha in the head with his Seibai. “Leave Shippou with us and go get some air. Both of you.”

Kagome looked like she was going to argue. InuYasha did argue. “Keh. I’m not leaving till he wakes up.” Looking down at the child, InuYasha shook him gently. “You hear that, runt?”

“They’re right, InuYasha,” Kaede spoke up from her seat by the fire. “Ye need not go far. Shippou will be fine for a few minutes.”

Miroku caught Sango’s eye over the hanyou’s head. He nodded. Sango reached for Shippou again. This time, InuYasha let her take him. Kagome ran over to take the kit. InuYasha caught her and dragged her outside in spite of her protests.

The night air was crisp, clean, clear as glass with a wash of stars shining down and the odd paradox of the full moon and a human InuYasha. Kagome rubbed her arms and sighed, glancing back toward the hut as InuYasha shuffled his feet in the dirt.   She turned back and started to head back inside. InuYasha caught her again and pulled her back.

“Let me go,” she whispered miserably.

“Keh! If I gotta stand around outside, then you do, too.”

“But—”

“Can you listen to me for once?” he snapped. “Stop trying to fix everything, will you?”

She drew back as though he had slapped her. “I’m not trying to fix everything! I’m—”

“Keh.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I know why you wouldn’t let me hold him. It’s my fault he’s hurt . . . it’s my fault you’re human.”

Eyes as dark as the night sky stared back at her out of the face she knew so well. Yet they weren’t really InuYasha’s eyes. He was as strange to her as someone she’d just met, and the look in his gaze was full of sadness, of anger. “You think it’s your fault that I attacked him? You think it’s your fault I couldn’t control my rage? If I stay human the rest of my life, it’s no more than I deserve, but you . . .” he cut himself off, staring off to the side, looking for answers when there were none. “Just don’t. It ain’t your fault, and you can’t help Shippou by blaming yourself.”

She stared at him in the moonlight, tears falling like diamonds from eyes that seemed lost in a sea of stars. “You’re saying the same things that I’ve said to myself all day, and yet you say that I can’t help Shippou by blaming myself? What about you? You can do what I can’t?”

“Keh.”

Her soft tone was marred by the rasp, the crack, as her sorrow came through her voice. “I asked Shippou to help me train. He didn’t want to. He thought you’d be angry. I told him I wouldn’t let him hurt you, and I _didn’t_ let you, did I? No, because instead, _I_ hurt him. _Me_ . . . and I hurt you, too . . . .” She leaned back against the barrel beside the door, arms crossed over her chest as she glared defiantly into his eyes. “You didn’t do anything but what you always do. You tried to protect me. It was my mistake.”

His gaze narrowed as he stared at her, shaking his head slightly, as though there was something that he didn’t think she comprehended. “You were training because you want to be stronger. You needed to train because I’ve failed to protect you one time too many. You didn’t make me come after Shippou. If it hadn’t been for me—my temper—he wouldn’t be like that. You did what you had to do because I made you do it.”

The words in Izayoi’s diary came back to Kagome as she stared at the stars in the sky. Was he remembering, too? _‘But in you, I saw what your father was like in those earlier times. As much as I adore you, InuYasha, I also hope you learn to manage this aspect of yourself. Fury and rage, when controlled, can be a great asset. Running around in a constant state of anger, however, can be a disability_.’

It might be true, that InuYasha had trouble controlling his temper sometimes.   But it didn’t help to know that when, in the beginning, and now at the end, it had been _her_ choices that had brought them here. Blaming him wouldn’t repair what she’d done. ‘ _Just be all right, Shippou . . ._ .’

She shifted her gaze to stare at InuYasha out of the corner of her eyes. He was staring up at the stars, too, a vulnerability, a sadness that she couldn’t begin to understand held in the depths of his eyes. What was it like for him, to look upon the full moon with human eyes? And why was there suddenly a distance between them that felt like more than five hundred years?

“InuYasha! Kagome! Come quickly!” Miroku called, his voice breathless, almost panicked.

They glanced at each other before running for the doorway. InuYasha beat her there, and he hurried inside without looking back to see whether or not she was following. She swallowed back a lump that rose in her throat. Half-afraid of what she would find when she stepped inside the hut, Kagome drew a ragged breath and fired off a quick prayer. ‘ _Let him be all right . . . just let Shippou be awake . . . ._ ’

Kagome stepped inside as a shooting star streaked across the heavens.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Aoirotoku_** _:   Blue Shield Barrier_   ( _Thanks to BakaBokken for helping me name this one!_ )


	52. Escape

InuYasha stumbled back inside the small hut as he swallowed the fear that burned in his chest.   “What’s going on?” he asked as he hurried over. Everyone was huddled together, and InuYasha couldn’t see. He hesitated but stepped closer, willing himself to be calm as he drew a deep breath and peeked over Miroku’s shoulder.

“InuYasha? You . . . why are you human?”

Waves of relief washed over him even as a little more guilt boiled up. Shippou was awake and was staring at him as though he had never seen InuYasha in human form before. “Oi, runt. Finally decided to wake up, did you?”

Shippou took the words for what they were: relief that the kit was improving. InuYasha lifted the child out of Sango’s arms and sank back down on the floor with him. “InuYasha? I’m sorry . . . I knew you’d be mad when you found out I was helping Kagome . . . .”

“Keh.” InuYasha shook his head. “Don’t apologize.”

Shippou blinked his sleepy eyes as he stared around at his friends. “I’m tired.”

“You should be,” Miroku said, relief evident in his tone. “You had us all worried.”

A frown creased the smoothness of his child-complexion as he slowly looked around the hut. “Where’s Kagome?”

InuYasha glanced up. Kagome hadn’t followed him back inside? “I dunno . . . maybe she wanted a few more minutes alone.”

Sango straightened. “I’ll go check on her.”

“InuYasha?”

“Hmm?”

Shippou frowned and yawned. “Why are you holding me? You hate me.”

InuYasha blinked quickly and cleared his throat. That didn’t work, and he had to clear his throat again. “I never hated you, runt.”

“Really?”

“Keh.”

Shippou shifted slightly, burying his face against InuYasha’s haori. “Never really thought . . . you were a baka . . . .”

“Keh.” He cleared his throat again. “Go to sleep, brat.”

“Mmm,” Shippou muttered. “Pocky . . . .”

InuYasha blinked as a sudden wash of hot tears poked the back of his eyes as he stared down at the kitsune. His color was starting to pink up, and InuYasha couldn’t stave back the intense relief that filled him. ‘ _He’ll be fine . . . I’m sorry, Shippou._ ’

Sango came back inside with a worried frown.

“Sango?” Miroku asked as he rose and grasped her elbow.

“I can’t find her . . . Kagome’s not in the village, and she’s not by the stream.”

InuYasha got up and handed Shippou over to Sango. “Take care of him.”

“InuYasha, where are you going?” Miroku asked, eyeing the human-hanyou with a distinct frown.

“Keh! Where do you think?”

Kaede spoke up from the herb mash she was concocting for Shippou. “I think ‘tis best to leave Kagome alone for awhile, InuYasha. She needs not the reminder of what she did.”

InuYasha glowered at the old miko. “What do you know about it? I heard you! I remember! You told her to do it when she said she couldn’t.”

“Know ye nothing, InuYasha?” Kaede remarked. “But one look at ye hurts her. Think ye she wanted to do that to ye? She had no choice! Ye managed to break the kotodama rosary in your rage. What would ye have done to Shippou had she not stopped ye?”

“If you think I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t done it, then you’re fucking wrong, old woman. Kagome should be here with Shippou. He wants her.” He stalked toward the door.

Miroku stopped him. “It’s dangerous, InuYasha.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re human, and you have enemies.”

InuYasha didn’t answer that. He glared at the monk for a minute then jerked his arm away before stalking out the door and into the moonlight.

‘ _She went home. You know she did. She blames herself_.’

InuYasha didn’t need his hanyou senses to know the path she’d taken. He made a face. He’d forgotten about the rosary. Had he ever been so furious in his life? He doubted it. That he’d managed to break the rosary worried him. In truth, he’d forgotten he still wore it; it’d been so long since Kagome had actually said ‘the word’. He couldn’t really confess to missing the thing, but if they offered Kagome a sense of security, maybe . . . .

‘ _How long will I be human? Is this a permanent thing? Or is it more like that barrier on Hakureizan? Temporarily purified . . . and Kagome . . . she wouldn’t know, either . . ._ .’ He glared at the darkened path that led him through the forest. ‘ _Maybe I should stay human . . . I can’t hurt anyone like this, not that way . . . ._ ’ He sighed as an image of Kagome’s sad expression led him further into the darkness, and he’d been scared. More scared in that moment than he’d ever been in his life, he’d been frightened; frightened of remaining human, frightened of returning to his hanyou state, frightened of his inner youkai blood . . . and frightened of Kagome’s power.

‘ _This is all my fault. If I’d been better at protecting her—if I hadn’t failed her so often, she wouldn’t have wanted to train . . . if I hadn’t had to take off to hunt down Katosan, I would have been able to stop her before Shippou decided to help her . . ._ .’

Why did she leave? Didn’t she realize that Shippou would have wanted her? Didn’t she realize that, to the kit, she was the mother he didn’t have? InuYasha sighed. He knew why she left. He’d have to be blind not to. She blamed herself for what had happened. A more experienced miko might have been able to better channel her purification powers and may have been able to confine them only to the intended target. But Kagome was still training.

Her voice came back to him, her sobs, her cries, her reluctance that had nearly cost them all, ‘ _I can’t!_ ’ He didn’t even want to think about what might have happened if she really hadn’t been able to . . . .

Stepping into the moonlit field after being shrouded in the darkness of the forest was shocking. InuYasha blinked staring around at the meadow that looked wholly unfamiliar to him with his human eyes. Strange sounds of the night in the forest came to him. Normally comforting, the noises only served to add to his strange sense of being completely naked in the dark. He’d never reconciled himself to his mortal body but this time, he felt different, stranger, more vulnerable than he’d ever felt before. He unconsciously reached for Tetsusaiga only to remember too late that he’d left it in Kaede’s hut.

‘ _Because_ ,’ his mind whispered, ‘ _you always knew that with the dawn you’d return to your normal state . . . and this time, nothing is guaranteed_.’

He swallowed hard as he stalked toward the well.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _I’m a monster . . . Shippou . . . InuYasha . . . . What have I done?_ ’

Kagome sat on the bench staring at the back doors but couldn’t bring herself to get up and go inside. Mrs. Higurashi would drop whatever she was doing to make sure that Kagome had a hot bath and something to eat. Souta would rush her and demand to know the latest tales from Sengoku Jidai. Grandpa would fire off questions that she was supposed to ask Miroku for him. None of those things appealed to her.

He broke the kotodama rosary.

‘ _He broke the rosary, and he attacked Shippou because of me, because he thought I was in danger, and . . . then I . . . ._ ’

‘ _Didn’t have a choice!_ ’

She shook her head, furiously blinking back tears that rose to the surface. ‘ _Didn’t I? Why did I ask Shippou to do this? He knew! He knew how angry InuYasha would be, but he trusted me to keep him safe, and . . . . Oh, Shippou!_ ’

Wiping an angry hand over her cheeks to dispel the tears that had fallen, Kagome glared at her wet fingers, shining in the moonlight. ‘ _The best thing for them—all of them—is for me to stay as far away from them as I can . . . the next time . . . . No! There won’t be a next time! There can’t be! I can’t control this power, and I never want to use it again!_ ’

Staring at the shrine doors again, Kagome rose to her feet only to crumble back onto the bench as a savage jolt shot through her. The sudden yearning to be in InuYasha’s arms again doubled her over. Forehead nearly touching her legs, she choked back a silent sob. She hadn’t understood the look on his face at the time. Maybe now she did.

‘ _He was scared . . . InuYasha was scared? Was he scared of me? Of what I’d done? But . . . I didn’t want to do it, I just_ . . . .’

So she’d done what she always did when things got too complicated, too hard to deal with. She ran. She’d heard Shippou’s voice, and then she left without a word. It was enough to know that he would be all right.

“Kagome?”

She gasped at the sound of the soft voice. Hesitation, wariness, a sense of reluctance that ripped at her already tattered soul. She couldn’t make herself look at him, couldn’t stand to see the awful fear in his eyes again.

“Shippou’s awake,” he tried again, his tone even softer this time as he slowly came toward her. “He was asking for you.”

“He doesn’t need me,” she whispered.

“Keh. You know that’s not true.”

“I _can’t_.”

Warm hands grasped her shoulders, forced her to sit up. Warm fingers lifted her chin, and InuYasha’s dark stare penetrated her skull. She tried to look away. He wouldn’t let her. “Why did you run?”

“Why did you come after me?”

His gaze fell away. His frown darkened as he struggled to answer her question. “Because Shippou was asking for you.”

Unsure what sort of answer she should have expected, it wasn’t the one she’d gotten. Her breath escaped in a rush, she felt as though her entire world had been yanked away.   ‘ _After what you did? Did you expect him to tell you he wants to come back because he loves you?_ ’ She winced as her inner voice struck a barb straight through her heart. Another sob struggled to escape. She gulped it back, forced it away. “And because you’re the only one who can get through the well.”

“No!”

She pulled away, managed to stand. Wrapping her arms around herself in a wholly protective gesture, she turned to stare at Goshinboku. “It’s okay . . . I think it’s best if you go back now, and . . .” she closed her eyes against the gush of pain that shot through her. She willed it back. “Don’t come back for me.”

With a soft gasp, Kagome didn’t have time to react as he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. The fury in his eyes was shocking enough but as he glared down at her, she saw swirls of gold filtering into the darkness of his stare. He brought her up against his chest as her heart lurched into her throat and stuck. “What the fuck do you know about what’s best?” he growled, his voice nothing more than a low rumble, a resonance she knew but caught against him, locked to him, she couldn’t remember why.

She gasped again when the fangs reemerged, as his hair paled in the moonlight. ‘ _His anger_ ,’ she thought wildly. ‘ _His anger is returning his youkai . . . ._ ’ Relief washed through her as he transformed back into the hanyou she knew. If he noticed, he gave no indication. Staring at her with a fierceness that shocked her, he growled low, angry, as though his rage had once more been released.

With no kotodama rosary to protect her, with no Tetsusaiga to protect him, Kagome watched in shocked disbelief as brown shifted to gold, and gold bled into scarlet. The hands that held her tightened when she tried to pull away, and she winced. It registered in the back of her mind that he could kill her, and that he’d probably not even realize what he’d done. For some reason, the idea didn’t frighten her. Maybe she was too far past the emotion that it would require to be scared. Maybe she thought that she didn’t deserve to live, after what she’d done. Maybe the idea that her life would be ended by him was somehow ironically fitting. Or maybe she trusted him still, trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her, not really, and maybe . . . maybe that made it all right.

A curious sense of calm washed over her, ebbed through her, left her feeling peaceful as she waited. When the onslaught came, it came with a fury. Lips instead of claws, he closed her mouth under his, took possession without relinquishing a thing to her. Dominance borne of his youkai blood, all of the rage that had brought it back shifted into a different kind of passion. It felt to her like a different kind of death, the kind that melded her soul with his.

He kissed her with a brutality that shocked her even as it rattled through her, ricocheted through her system, leaving her weak and grasping. Electricity crackled in the air around them, brushed against her skin with tingling sensation as his claws raked over her, gentle enough not to draw blood, strong enough to send more heat spiraling in wave after wave through her. She moaned against his demanding kiss. He growled savagely in reply. He meant to overwhelm her, and she didn’t care.

Nipping at her, sucking on her lips, he held her to him with barely contained strength. Coursing through him and reaching her, she could feel his turmoil as human blood receded. With the triumph of his youkai blood came the unfurling of a scorching fire. Like being caught in the intense flames of the Kaze no Kizu, she felt her last traces of reason being whisked away from her. The rising tide, the rushing river washing over the waterfall, plummeting sensation as the two bodies met and melded, she wrapped her arms around his neck, stroking the base of his neck as he devoured her mouth with his.

Her aura surrounded them both slowly, faintly, glowing brighter as his youkai receded.   Lulled by the touch of her hands on his neck, a rasping whine escaped him. His grip on her loosened but didn’t fall away. His mouth didn’t leave hers as his kiss shifted from the harshness inspired by his youkai to the gentler hanyou she knew best. She relaxed against him, and he felt it too. His body shuddered as he supported her when her knees gave way. If she knew what she’d done, she didn’t show it. Taming his rampant youkai blood yet letting him keep his pride of dominance, he yielded to her as he laid claim to her soul.

His heart beat wildly under her fingers. She pressed her palm against him, as though the action would soothe him, only to find that the tempo increased, erratic yet strong.

She pulled her mouth away from his, swallowed as she stared into those golden eyes, glowing as he refused to look away. A soft sob of absolute relief escaped her, and he drew her against his chest, next to his heart, unable to do more than let her cry as he clumsily tried to soothe her.

He sank down on the bench and pulled her onto his lap, adjusting her head against his shoulder. He remained silent until she spoke. Winding down to sniffles and the occasional hiccup, Kagome nestled closer to him. She felt the tension drain from him with the simple action, and she sighed. “I don’t want to train anymore,” she admitted softly.

“Why not?”

“Look what happened today . . . I couldn’t contain it. I almost—”

“I told you, it was my fault. I overreacted, and . . . .” He softly squeezed her. “Now, come on. That runt-fox was pretty upset that you weren’t there when he woke up.”

She shook her head slowly. “How can you forgive me for that? I should have told you . . . .”

“Keh! Will you knock that off? I can’t forgive you when there’s not a damn thing to forgive. It was me.” He sighed, staring down at her with a pensive expression on his face. “Mother was right. My temper . . . I did this, not you.” He brushed the bangs out of her eyes with gentle claws.

“Maybe,” Kagome said slowly, “it was both of our faults?”

He looked like he was going to argue with her. In the end, he nodded even though she could tell from his expression that he didn’t agree, that he still blamed himself, which was fine since she felt the same way about herself. “Will you come back with me now?”

She sighed and finally nodded. “Before we go, I want to go to the store and get a few things for Shippou.”

“Keh.”

She stood up and headed for the shrine doors to say hello to her family and to get her purse. Maybe she should ask her mother if she could borrow some money . . . .

“Oi, Kagome!” She stopped and waited as InuYasha ran to her side. “You’re going to buy him all the pocky you can carry, aren’t you?”

She didn’t deny it but she did smile just a little.

He snorted. “Guess I’d better go with you then. Pathetic humans can’t carry much.”

Her smile widened just a little more as he followed her into the shrine.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Gonna leave any on the shelf?” InuYasha asked in a bored tone as Kagome dropped boxes of pocky into the cart.

“They’ve got more in the back, you know.”

“Keh.”

“You need more ramen, don’t you?”

InuYasha didn’t answer. He considered it for a moment before grabbing the remaining boxes of pocky and dumping them in the cart, too. Kagome raised her eyebrows but didn’t comment as he stalked off down the aisle.

She grabbed some ramen for the hanyou, anyway, and hurried to catch up with him as he rounded the corner. “Wait! Shippou needs new crayons! His last set is worn down to practically nothing.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes but didn’t comment as she made her way to the crayons and stationery aisle. She grabbed a box of sixteen assorted colors. InuYasha snatched it out of her hand and replaced it with a much larger box. She tilted her head to the side as she stared at him. He reddened slightly but refused to answer her unasked question.

He turned to survey the coloring books and tablets of paper. He picked up a few tablets, sniffed each one, felt the paper with his sensitive fingers, and retested a couple of them before dropping two tablets into the cart to join the pile of get-well gifts that Kagome was beginning to suspect would require two or three trips through the well to bring back, not to mention getting the stuff back to the shrine in the first place.

With a small grin, she stared at her mother’s Visa credit card. Kagome had made the mistake of mentioning ‘Shippou’ and ‘injured’ in the same sentence. Mrs. Higurashi had immediately dug into her purse and had told Kagome to buy the ‘poor baby’ whatever she thought he’d like. InuYasha had heard this, too, and apparently he felt no qualms in taking advantage of her mother’s generosity.  After all the stories Kagome had told her family about Shippou and his escapades, they were almost as fond of the kitsune as Kagome was.

Kagome blinked in surprise, drawn out of her reverie as InuYasha dropped a few preschool workbooks into the cart. ‘Learn to Love Reading’ was one. ‘Learn to Love Writing’ was another. She had let the other things pass, but these . . . . “InuYasha? You want Shippou to learn how to read and write?”

He didn’t meet her gaze. “Keh. Don’t look so shocked. I know how to do it. The runt should, too.” Kagome said no more as she followed the hanyou who had stalked away after his last surly statement. “What are all these?” InuYasha asked quietly as they rounded the corner into the toy aisle.

“Toys.”

“Pups in your time play too much,” he decided as he stared at a game box. ‘Twister’, Kagome read over his arm. She made a face. The last time she’d played that she was eight and she could have sworn she sprained something . . . .

“Magic?” InuYasha mumbled as he put the Twister box back and pulled another box, _101 Magic Tricks_. He shot Kagome a questioning glance. “How do they box magic?”

She made a face. “It’s not really magic,” she remarked. “It’s mostly illusion, slight of hand.”

“Illusion . . . like a kitsune.”

Hiding her grin as InuYasha dropped that into the cart, too, Kagome thought that maybe she needed to stop the hanyou before she ended up owing her mother her first born child since she fully intended to pay Mrs. Higurashi back.

They slowly progressed down the aisle as InuYasha stopped to look at different things. Though he never smiled, she could feel an air of wonder around him. She squelched the desire to tweak his ears since they were hidden under the baseball cap he wore when they left the shrine grounds.

“Did you have toys when you were small?”

InuYasha blinked and shrugged. “A few. Nothing like this.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile. “Well, no, I didn’t think so.”

“A ball . . . A few other things.”

She was about to comment when he suddenly growled low. She looked to see what he was staring at and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing outright. The poor hanyou was staring at a row of stuffed animals, all of them cutesy-ed out almost beyond recognition of what they were supposed to be.

He slowly reached over and lifted a small white dog with cute little ears that stuck up like tiny triangles on his head. InuYasha sniffed it cautiously then turned it around, staring at it from all angles, as though he was trying to figure something out.

Catching Kagome’s amused expression, InuYasha dropped the dog back onto the shelf as his cheeks reddened. He stomped away. Kagome grabbed the dog and put it in the cart, too, before following InuYasha.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome shook her head at the huge sheet-wrapped parcel slung over InuYasha’s back. Her own backpack felt as though it weighed a ton, and she couldn’t believe they actually were able to bring everything back in one trip. “Ready?” he asked as she heaved her bag off the ground outside the well.

She nodded as she breathed in the smog-free air. Sengoku Jidai might have youkai running amok, no electricity, and other minor inconveniences, but she loved how clean the air was. “InuYasha? I’m sorry I ran away.”

“Keh.”

She sighed at his standard answer. “Did you . . . was the only reason you came to get me because of Shippou?”

She could feel his eyes on her even though she kept her own on the grass where they walked. “That’s a stupid question.”

She shook her head. “I guess so,” she mumbled as her cheeks warmed in embarrassment.

He stopped and put a hand out to stop her, too. “No.”

“No?”

He sighed. “No, it wasn’t the only reason.” Shaking his head slowly, he scowled. “I’m not so good with words, Kagome.”

She leaned up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “You are. You just don’t know it.”

“Keh.” His gaze narrowed on her, and he shook his head slightly as he stared at her neck. “Kagome, the jewel . . . .”

She lifted the orb as she followed the direction of his eyes and gasped as she shook her head in disbelief. “This can’t . . . how?”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Hakureizan_** ** _(Mount Hakurei)_** _  
> _ _white, spirit-power, mountain_. _InuYasha was purified briefly when he went through the barrier surrounding this mountain in search of Naraku_.


	53. The Monkinator

‘ _I can’t fucking believe he talked me into this_.’

Ducking down behind the log on the edge of the clearing, InuYasha peeked over the top to see where Kagome was. Because he wasn’t able to launch attacks at her, and because Tetsusaiga wouldn’t attack her, they’d had to alter the plan for Kagome’s training into something far more dangerous, to him, at least, than what Shippou had done by hiding and hurling fox fire at her.

And that, too, had been the damn monk’s fault. ‘ _Speaking of that damn monk,’_ InuYasha thought threateningly, _‘if I get my claws on him any time soon, I’ll show him a thing or two . . . ._ ’

Kagome was meditating. InuYasha sank down with his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand and sighed.   Shippou sat in the shade of the cherry trees with Sango and the Shikon no Tama. During these training sessions, it had been decided that Kagome didn’t dare keep the jewel around her neck.   It had been a close thing—too close—but InuYasha’s main concern had been that the jewel would end up being accidentally purified in the process, as had almost happened before.

 _The hut was quiet enough to hear Shippou’s light, even breathing as the kit slept, surrounded by pocky boxes and the rest of his bounty. Having been asleep when InuYasha and Kagome came in, the hanyou had proceeded to create such a ruckus in dropping the makeshift bag slung over his shoulder and shaking things around that the kit had stirred. Cuddling the stuffed dog that Kagome had given him, the kitsune looked content and happy if not still a little peaked and basically exhausted. The silence was stifling, thick, heavy_.

“ _So you’re saying that it was almost purified, right?” Kagome asked slowly, staring from Kaede to Miroku. “But why? I didn’t make a wish. I wasn’t concentrating on it . . . ._ ”

“ _When you purified InuYasha, perhaps the jewel sensed the vast spiritual energy it would have taken, and thus rendered enough power to nearly accomplish the deed without actually intending to do it_.”

“ _I don’t get it,” InuYasha remarked as he frowned at the Shikon no Tama. “How can someone accidentally purify something?_ ”

 _Sango shrugged. “Because the jewel isn’t supposed to exist at all, so no one really knows how to purify it. We’ve speculated that it should be used to grant a pure wish, but perhaps it is only purity of intention that is truly the key to it all_.”

 _Kagome unhooked the chain and stared at the jewel. The orb was nearly entirely white now, glowing with a soft light, a pure light, as sparkles of pink swirled and ebbed.   “What does it mean?” she asked quietly without looking away from the jewel_.

“ _I don’t know . . . as Sango has said, I’ve heard nothing that would explain precisely how you’d purify the jewel. It stands to reason that no one really knows,” Miroku admitted. “Have you heard anything, Kaede? Did Kikyou ever say anything about it?_ ”

 _The old miko shook her head slowly as she stared at the jewel, too. “It was Kikyou’s belief that the jewel should be used for the betterment of someone, as she had wished to turn InuYasha human. But she wasn’t certain, and I believe in my heart that she was wrong in this_.”

 _Kagome tried to fasten the necklace around her neck again. After a minute of fumbling with the clasp, InuYasha gently took the ends and fastened it for her. The enamored look the miko bestowed on the hanyou brought a dusting of red to his cheeks. Miroku coughed delicately. “ ‘Monk-in-Pain’ . . . nice shade. Matches your clothes,” which only served to deepen the flush on InuYasha’s face. For once, however, the hanyou let it pass_.

 _Shippou stirred with a soft whine. To his everlasting surprise, Kagome and InuYasha both started to get up. InuYasha must have realized what he was doing and sank back down as Kagome retrieved the kitsune and returned to the group, settling the kit in her lap. Shippou smiled at her and closed his eyes again as Kagome stroked his hair_.

“ _You never did say, InuYasha, why did you change back?_ ”

“ _Keh. I dunno,” he grumbled as his cheeks reddened a little bit more_.

“ _You don’t know?” Sango echoed with a pointed look as Kagome’s cheeks pinked, too. Miroku hid his smile. “What were you doing when it happened?_ ”

 _Matching red faces avoided everyone’s amused stares. “I see,” Miroku commented in the silence that followed. Trying to control his desire not only to laugh but to further any embarrassment, he cleared his throat and tried his best to broach the subject in the most delicate way possible. “Could it be—and this is just a thought—that maybe the provocation of very strong feelings could have triggered the reverse transformation?” InuYasha didn’t look like he was going to leap across the room and rip him apart, so Miroku dared push the envelope just a little. “Of course, that would be dependent upon exactly what it was you were doing at the time . . ._ .”

 _InuYasha mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, ‘perverted monk’. Miroku hid his amusement behind a judiciously placed hand over his mouth_.

“ _So who will help you, Kagome?” Sango asked, breaking the stilted quiet_.

 _Kagome shook her head. “I don’t want to do it anymore,” she admitted. “After today . . . ._ ”

“ _Ye must finish what ye started,” Kaede insisted. “Ye know too much yet not enough to control it, Kagome. ‘Tis a dangerous knowledge ye possess_.”

“ _I can’t . . . What if I hurt someone else? And besides that, there isn’t anyone else who can help me_.”

“ _Sure there is,” Miroku spoke up_.

“ _There is?_ ”

 _Miroku nodded at InuYasha, who was leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed and his arms wrapped around Tetsusaiga. “InuYasha could.” Kagome’s eyes flared wide, and she looked like she was considering what would happen if she tried to purify him. He held his hands up in a defensive gesture and hurried on to say, “Now hear me out! InuYasha is hanyou, which means that you could purify him and the worst it would do is turn him human, whereupon you can use whatever action it was that changed him back this time to return him to normal, should the need arise. He’s the only one that could endure it, really. Full youkai can’t help you. Humans wouldn’t be useful, either. Just think about it_.”

“ _No,” Kagome stated flatly. “There’s no reason to think about it, because I won’t do it_.”

 _That said, the miko got up and stalked over to her pallet. She lay down with a disgusted sigh and, with Shippou curled up in her arms, the two settled down to sleep_.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, InuYasha glanced over the log again and sighed when he saw Kagome still had her eyes closed and her hands folded. ‘ _Still meditating._ ’

He really hated these training sessions.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sesshoumaru sat back in the thickly padded desk chair and stared over the lights of the city in the distance. On the outskirts of Tokyo, he’d built his home long ago. ‘ _Musashi_ . . . .’

The office door opened as Nibori slipped into the room. “Any word, Father?”

Sesshoumaru didn’t look at his son. Swinging his chair back around, he stood and crossed the room. “Not yet.”

Nibori nodded slowly. “How would this work? How will you know?”

Sesshoumaru frowned as he stared at the polished wooden box on the fireplace mantle. “I shall know because,” he answered as he lifted the lid on the empty case, “so long as it remains empty, then all is as it should be.”

Nibori considered that. It made perfect sense, of course. His father had centuries to figure this out. The time had come . . . .

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“He really hates this,” Miroku idly remarked with a chuckle.

Sango shook her head as she glanced over at Shippou. The kitsune dozed with Kirara under the treetop canopy with the stuffed dog in his arms. InuYasha sat behind a log not far away as he waited for Kaede’s signal. Her gaze returned to the much-too-happy monk, and she sighed. “Can you blame him? It is fairly dangerous.”

“InuYasha can handle it.”

Sango cast him a calculated stare. “How did you talk him into it?”

Miroku grinned. “I pointed out the benefits of helping, that’s all.”

“What benefits?”

“Come now, Sango. You didn’t miss the looks, the blushes?”

“What do you mean?”

Miroku lowered his voice and leaned closer to whisper his answer to her. “I believe that InuYasha is returned to his hanyou state by emotional passion.”

“Passion?” Sango repeated with a curious frown. Her eyes widened as understanding dawned. “You mean . . . ?”

Miroku shrugged. “Any passion, really . . . rage would work, too, but I’d venture to guess it was the other. They were both sporting very nice shades of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red.”

Sango shook her head and tapped Miroku’s chest before she walked back over to sit with Shippou.

Miroku chuckled as he thought about the conversation he’d had with InuYasha two days before.

“ _She won’t do it_.”

“ _Can you, at least, see the reasoning behind it?_ ”

 _InuYasha shrugged offhandedly. “Maybe. Doesn’t change the fact that she won’t agree. You’re wasting your breath_.”

 _Miroku raised his eyebrows and plastered on an innocent expression. “Perhaps if Kagome thought you wanted her to do it . . ._.”

 _InuYasha shot him a dark look. “I don’t think I like where you’re going with this, monk_.”

 _Miroku put his arm around InuYasha’s shoulders and leaned in close, as though he was about to tell InuYasha a secret. “We all know that she listens to you more than she does anyone else. Shouldn’t you use this power of persuasion for something positive?_ ”

 _InuYasha shook off the monk’s arm. “Keh. Sounds underhanded, to me_.”

“ _All the better for you to do it. Sango is too honest, and, well, I’m too . ._ . .”

“ _Perverted?_ ”

“ _I was going to say misunderstood, but that works, too_.”

“ _Keh.” InuYasha stared at Miroku for a few moments, gaze narrowed. “Why do I get the impression that you just want to see me get purified every time I turn around?_ ”

“ _InuYasha! Of course not! However, I had the distinct impression that you didn’t mind, how Kagome managed to unlock your youkai blood . . . or was I mistaken?_ ”

 _InuYasha didn’t answer as he stomped ahead_.

Miroku chuckled as the memory faded. It had amused him to no end that InuYasha had secured Kagome’s reluctant agreement by nightfall. Watching the hanyou dart out from behind the log straight toward Kagome and the cloth flags that he had to snatch along the way, he figured that this was the best solution, anyway. InuYasha wouldn’t hurt her. With him as her training partner, she was absolutely safe.

‘ _Thank me later, InuYasha . . . thank me later . . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“We s-s-seek the hanyou InuYasha! Bring him forward, if you dare!”

Women and children ran for cover as the two snake youkai slinked into the village. Most of the men waited to see the fight that was brewing.

In Kaede’s hut, Miroku glanced at Sango. “Go see if InuYasha’s returned yet.”

Shippou tried to get up. “I can go,” he offered.

“You’re still too weak, Shippou,” Miroku said quietly. Sango was already heading out the door in full exterminator dress with Kirara on her heels. “Stay here with Kaede,” he told the pouting kitsune as he grabbed his sickle and stalked toward the door, too.

InuYasha had taken Kagome back to her time for exams. Since Shippou was still weak, InuYasha had agreed to stay behind, for Kagome’s peace of mind, or so the hanyou claimed. Interestingly, InuYasha had been exhibiting much more patience with the kitsune since the incident, which was a welcome thing, especially for Kagome. She hadn’t had to get between them to save the kit once since then.

Miroku stopped before the two serpent youkai and crossed his arms over his chest. “What business do you have with InuYasha?”

“Who are you?”

“Answer my question first.”

“He murdered our brother.”

Miroku frowned.   “The only time InuYasha takes a life is when they threaten others.”

“Oi, monk! Leave some for me, will you?” InuYasha hopped off Kirara’s back and landed on the ground beside Miroku. Leaning in slightly, InuYasha asked, “Who are they?”

“They claim you killed their brother.”

Sango ran over to stand beside Miroku, Hiraikotsu suspended over her shoulder.

“Their brother? The only other serpent youkai I’ve killed came after Kagome and the Shikon no Tama.”

The serpent youkai exchanged interested glances. “Shikon no Tama, you s-s-say?”

“Yes-s-s . . . why don’t you hand that over, and we’ll leave your paltry village s-s-standing.”

InuYasha whipped Tetsusaiga out of the scabbard as the fang transformed. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up and come get me if you think you can! Your brother didn’t last long, and neither will you.”

“Houshi-sama! Look at InuYasha’s sword!”

Miroku glanced at Tetsusaiga and blinked in surprise. “Interesting,” he mused absently. True enough, though InuYasha had said before that the sword had been given the ability to cast a protective barrier around Kagome, he hadn’t mentioned that the sword itself had somehow turned blue. He filed the information away to ask InuYasha about later as he pulled his sickle and stood in ready.

One of the serpent youkai flashed forward, stretching from his place to strike at Sango. She whirled around, cleaving a wide arc with Hiraikotsu. The youkai retreated just in time to avoid being struck.

Rage erupted in Miroku and though he contained it well enough. That the youkai would strike at Sango first brought him forward. Hurling the sickle, he sliced the youkai’s arm deep enough to impede him but not enough to sever the limb. With a snap on the chain, the sickle flew back. Miroku caught it as he ran closer.

InuYasha held off the other youkai, blocking his hissing tongue and lunging body with Tetsusaiga’s blade. With a heave, he sent the youkai skittering back. “Get the fuck _off_ me!” he bellowed as he hacked at the enemy but missed.

“You’re just a weak hanyou!” the youkai hissed. “S-S-Surrender or die!”

InuYasha snapped Tetsusaiga before him. “I’ll never surrender to the likes of you!”

“Prepare to die!”

Lurching forward in a flash of movement, InuYasha sidestepped the attack and slammed Tetsusaiga into the ground. “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” he yelled as the Wind Scar raced outward, engulfing everything in its path in the flash of flame. The youkai dodged but not in time to completely avoid the flames. With an agonized shriek, the youkai fell on his side as the Kaze no Kizu grazed his thigh.

In a blind rage, the youkai lunged at InuYasha. Sango unleashed her weapon as the wind whistled in its wake. “Hiraikotsu!” the exterminator hollered.

Hiraikotsu whizzed through the air, slicing the wind. The huge boomerang abraded the youkai’s arm, bringing on another round of angry shrieks as the weapon flew back to its owner.

The youkai shot off the ground, lunging at Sango. Miroku shoved her back and cleaved the sickle in a clean arc. With a grunt, the blade stuck deep, embedded in the youkai’s head. He jerked on the chain as the youkai screeched and stumbled back. Black blood spurted from the wound, spraying him with the hot mist. Grimacing with the effort, Miroku jerked again. The scythe rent the beast’s head down the middle and in an explosion of black ash, the youkai disintegrated.

InuYasha sprang forward, Tetsusaiga suspended over his shoulder. The remaining youkai hissed as he shot up and met InuYasha in the air. His venomous fangs caught the hanyou’s side.   InuYasha screamed as the snake youkai flung him back. InuYasha landed on his feet and slid back as the youkai turned to go after Miroku.

“You killed my brother!” he hissed.

“You’re next!” InuYasha snarled as he ran after the youkai. The youkai swung his arm, sending InuYasha crashing back again. He hit a tree hard and slumped to the ground.

Miroku helped Sango to her feet and pushed her away. “Check InuYasha!” he demanded. Sango nodded. Miroku raised his arm, ready to hurl the sickle again.

The youkai advanced on him as a reddish-brown blur zipped over the ground and bounded onto the youkai’s back. “You! You hurt InuYasha!”

“Shippou!” Miroku gasped, stilling his blade as the kitsune bit into the snake’s back.

The snake shrieked in anger as he swiped at the child. “Shippou!” Sango screamed.

The youkai managed to latch onto Shippou’s arm. The kit growled as the snake tried in vain to dislodge him. Miroku rushed forward, swinging the scythe at the snake’s legs.

“Damn you! _Shippou, get the hell outta there!_ ”

Miroku glanced back as InuYasha stumbled to his feet. Shaking his head to dispel the effects of the hit he’d taken, InuYasha pushed Sango away when she tried to hold him back.   ‘ _Venom_ ,’ Miroku thought suddenly. ‘ _InuYasha’s been poisoned . . ._.’

Shippou let go of the snake and fell. Still weakened from the purification, he wasn’t able to get up and run fast enough. The snake youkai caught him and raised his scaly hand to slice the kit to pieces.

InuYasha snarled and lunged. Tetsusaiga cut through the youkai’s arm, severing the limb as he wrenched Shippou out of his grasp and leapt back.

The youkai screamed in pain as Miroku unleashed the sickle blade. Embedded deep in the youkai’s back, Miroku held on tight. “InuYasha!”

The hanyou raised Tetsusaiga and brought it down with a shriek of, “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” The youkai was surrounded in the blast even as his scream died away.

The sickle fell to the ground as the youkai dissolved. Miroku pulled the chain and turned to survey the damage left behind. One hut had been leveled but it didn’t seem as though anyone was hurt. When he turned around again, it was to find InuYasha hunkered down on the ground with Shippou nestled against his chest.

“Are you fucking _stupid_? I ought to beat the shit out of you, kit!” InuYasha yelled at the barely conscious child.

Sango touched InuYasha’s shoulder. “Let me—”

“Back off, Sango!”

Miroku ran over. “InuYasha, calm down.”

“Go to hell, monk!” InuYasha snarled. “Do you hear me, Shippou? When you’re better, I swear, I’ll—”

“He was concerned, InuYasha!” Kaede said as she hurried toward them.

“Like I give a damn! That was stupid, Shippou _, stupid!_ Don’t do that again!” The hanyou raised his hand. Three people lunged to stop him. Before anyone could grab him, InuYasha flicked Shippou’s nose. Incredibly, the kitsune’s eyes welled with tears. “You hear me, runt?”

Shippou nodded miserably. InuYasha, obviously satisfied that he’d gotten his point across, struggled to his feet and staggered back toward Kaede’s hut, leaving three puzzled humans behind.

Sango was the first to recover from her shock. “What was that?”

Kaede shook her head. “Mayhap InuYasha has begun to learn some much needed self-control.”

Miroku frowned. “It almost seemed like some sort of discipline . . . but it was a bit odd, wasn’t it?”

Sango hefted Hiraikotsu over her shoulder and shrugged. “InuYasha didn’t thump him . . . .”

Miroku suddenly grinned as a wave of fatigue rolled over him. “Remarkable . . . I’ve seen InuYasha strike the kit and not draw that sort of reaction.”

Kaede led the way back to her hut. “I must see to those wounds . . . InuYasha took in venom, did he not?”

Sango stopped Miroku with a hand on his arm. “What do you make of it?”

“Of InuYasha’s behavior?” Sango nodded. Miroku chuckled. “I haven’t the faintest idea, Sango, though I must admit, the changes don’t seem to be a negative thing.”

“Still,” Sango went on dubiously, “don’t you think it odd that he’s being nearly as protective of Shippou as he is of Kagome?”

Miroku sighed, catching Sango’s chin and lifting her face to look up at him. “Must we discuss InuYasha? Surely you can think of other things that might be more interesting than him . . . ?”

Sango blushed but smiled shyly. “Did you have something in mind?”

Miroku kissed her lightly. “I was thinking, Sango . . . How would you feel about a wedding?”

Her breath caught as she stared at the monk-turned-exterminator. “It would depend on whose wedding you speak of,” she whispered.

“Perhaps a certain youkai exterminator would consider marriage to another certain exterminator . . . who used to be a monk . . . ?”

Sango swallowed hard. Unable to speak, she stared at him for a few moments before she nodded. “I think the youkai exterminator might like that.”

Miroku grinned. “I think the ex-monk would like it much, much more.”

 

 

 

 

 


	54. Surprise

Kagome sighed and shut down the computer. “Thank goodness.” Glancing over at her clock, she was pleased to see that she’d finished all her exams with a little time to spare. With a happy little smile, Kagome got up and started packing things into her backpack. ‘ _InuYasha will come for me soon . . . might as well be ready when he gets here . . . ._ ’

Her smile widened. ‘ _InuYasha_ . . . .’

How could the thought of his name alone be enough to set her entire being on edge? It was a beautiful feeling, a complete happiness that make her feel safe and warm, almost as much as she felt when he was there with her.

The window swung open a little wider as the hanyou climbed through with a muttered, “Keh!”

“What do you have against using the door?” she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled at him.

InuYasha leaned against the wall next to the open window and snorted again. “If I come through the door,” he remarked, “then I have to play Twenty Questions with your entire family before I make it up here.”

“Miss me?”

“Keh! Sneaky wench, fishing for compliments again?”

She shrugged as she stood and headed for her dresser to pull out some clothes. “In that case, I don’t know why I even bother . . . I might as well just stay here . . . .”

A vicious growl sounded directly behind her. She gasped as InuYasha spun her around and moved in closer to pin her against the dresser. “Not funny, wench.”

“What happened to your sense of humor?” she asked in a whisper. He was too close, too overwhelming. She swallowed hard as she stared at him.

“I never had one.”

“Sure you did.”

“Keh.”

“So you didn’t miss me at all?”

“You talk too much.”

“So you’ve said . . . .”

“Hasn’t changed.”

“InuYasha?”

“Make it fast,” he growled as he leaned closer, nuzzling her cheek.

“I can’t breathe . . . .”

“Good . . . can’t breathe means can’t talk.”

“No, I mean it.”

He leaned away and eyed her suspiciously. “What’s wrong?”

Kagome giggled suddenly. “Gotcha.”

“Sneaky wench!” he rumbled as Kagome ducked under his arm and darted over to shove more stuff into her bag. He stalked toward her, growling low. She backed away, lifting her hands before her in a gesture meant to keep him at bay.

“I thought you’d be anxious to go back,” she said, stalling for time as he continued to make his way toward her. “How’s Shippou?”

“I am,” he answered. “Shippou’s fine.”

She backed away a little more. “Well, let me finish packing, and we can go.”

“I’ve got a better idea.”

She blinked at the look in his eyes. He stared at her like he was hunting her, and for some reason, that look was making her knees feel like jelly. She backed up a little more, her calves brushing against the bedspread. She couldn’t help the small shriek that escaped as he lunged at her and bore her down, pinning her against the mattress. “See? My idea was much better.”

He didn’t give her a chance to answer as his lips covered hers. She sighed, giving up before she really fought him at all, and slipped her arms around his waist. He hissed suddenly and jerked back, rolling to the side as she sat up with a concerned frown. “InuYasha?”

“It’s nothing,” he growled. He reached for her again. She ducked and pulled at his haori and undershirt.

“What happened?” she demanded as she stared at the torn flesh on his right side.

“Nothing,” he repeated. “It’s fine. Just don’t touch it, and I won’t complain.”

“InuYasha!” she reprimanded as she scampered off the bed to dig through her backpack for the first aid kit. “I can’t believe you can think about that when your side looks like someone used it to sharpen their claws on! Now tell me what happened!”

He heaved a frustrated sigh and leaned on his elbow. “Two serpent youkai came after me. One bit me, and his fangs scraped. It’s fine, I told you. Besides, Kaede already cleaned it. Now stop fussing, will you?”

“I’m not fussing! I’m concerned. There’s a _huge_ difference.”

“Keh! You’re fussing.” He jerked his shirts closed and folded his arms together, sitting back with a stubborn expression on his face.

“Let me see,” she said, trying to reach for his haori again.

He turned away. “Keh.”

“Keh!” she retorted as she reached again.

“Wench! You haven’t seen me for three days and all you’re concerned about is a tiny scratch?”

“Yep, now let me see!”

“No, thanks.”

“Quit pouting and let me look.”

“I don’t pout!”

“What would you call it?”

“Keh!”

“InuYasha . . . .”

He shifted his eyes but didn’t lift his chin to look at her. She narrowed her eyes at him for good measure. His ears flattened a little, and he snorted, letting his arms drop as she reached to pull his shirts open again. “How long ago did this happen?”

“The day you came here,” he replied, his tone sulky.

“And it’s still not healed?”

“They were snakes, Kagome, snakes. Venom. Hella nasty bastards . . . .”

She sighed and shook her head. “What were they after?”

“Keh. They said I killed their brother.”

“Did you?”

“Of course I did.”

“InuYasha . . . we’ve got to talk about this bloodlust of yours.”

“Damn it, it was the same one that came after you when you were chasing me to Sesshoumaru’s.”

She sat back. “Oh.”

“Don’t worry. They won’t be back.”

Kagome shook her head. “I’m not worried . . . I just . . . you’re all constantly fighting, because of me, because of the jewel . . . I hate that.”

InuYasha waited until Kagome taped the bandages into place before shrugging his clothes back over his shoulders. “Is Shippou feeling any better?”

“That damn brat . . . he tried to attack the snake that bit me.”

Kagome’s eyes widened in alarm. “Was he—?”

“No.”

She frowned as InuYasha folded his arms together again. There was something he wasn’t telling her. He seemed almost guilty. “Did you thump him?”

“Keh. I should have. Damn kitsune nearly got himself killed.”

“What did you do?”

InuYasha flushed slightly. “Nothin’.”

“Then why are you blushing?” she countered softly.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Am not.”

“Are.”

“Not.”

“Are!”

“Keh!”

She gasped and sat back as she stared at him with a small grin. “You did that youkai thing, didn’t you? Tweaked his nose?”

InuYasha’s flush darkened. “Keh.”

“And what did Shippou do?”

InuYasha sighed, apparently not at all pleased with the outcome of the disciplinary action. “Bawled.”

“Why doesn’t that make you happier?”

He shot her a glower. “You think I _want_ to make the kid cry? I don’t, but he’s got to learn. Miroku told him to stay with Kaede, and he didn’t listen. He’s worse than you, blubbering like a baby—”

“I don’t blubber!”

“Wanna bet?”

“You’re impossible.”

“Keh.”

Kagome rolled her eyes and headed for the door.

“Oi! Where you going now?”

She stopped and leaned back to stick her head back into her room. “To get the treats Mama bought for me to bring back.”

“You mean more than what you’ve already crammed in that bag?”

Kagome grinned. “Some of it is for you.”

He looked away as though it was of no interest to him at all. Kagome knew better. The way his ears twitched said as much.

Watching her go, InuYasha snorted in the quiet room. His mother’s diary lay on the nightstand. InuYasha wondered if Kagome had read any more of it while she’d been here. Making a face, he stared at the book. His mother’s words offered him a measure of comfort that was surprising. Still he had to wonder exactly why Izayoi had written it, in the first place. It seemed like nothing more than the story of his mother and father, and while it was interesting to hear, it didn’t change anything, did it?

He frowned. He had hated to leave Kagome here alone, especially since Katosan was still around. But Shippou couldn’t be left alone, either. In the end, Kagome was the one who had demanded that he stay behind so she could concentrate on her stupid exams and so Shippou wouldn’t miss her as much.

InuYasha sighed and picked up the diary. He had intended to only be here long enough to get Kagome but since she was taking her time getting her things around, he might as well get some more of the diary out of the way.

‘ _Your father told me that should anything happen to him, one of his most trusted men would watch out for us. Katosan was one of your father’s most faithful generals as well as another inu-youkai. He was the one who came to stay with us, and, should anything come to pass, he is the one who has been entrusted with making certain you are taken to Sesshoumaru. He was the one who watched over you when you ventured into the village. Though he never seemed emotional, you always loved to be around him. I think, in many respects, you thought of him as a father figure . . ._.’

InuYasha nearly choked as he dropped the diary and glared at the yellowed pages. ‘ _What?_ _No . . . oh_ hell _no . . . ._ ’

There wasn’t any way under the sun that InuYasha had thought of Katosan like that . . . ‘ _Mother had to be mistaken . ._ . .’ Even as he thought that, he knew. The few times he’d sneaked out of the castle gates into the village in search of someone to play with, he remembered the vague shadow, the stealthy follower that he had smelled at the time but hadn’t remarked on. Maybe he had been too young for it to make sense but, thinking back now . . . ‘ _Damn!_ ’

Still, if that had been Katosan, why hadn’t Myouga mentioned that when he’d told InuYasha why Katosan wanted him to regain Musashi? It didn’t make sense . . . . _Nothing_ made sense. Everything seemed to be spinning away into a convoluted mess that had no real truths.   He stared at the diary again. This book had disappeared for over five hundred years. Who had it then?

He had thought that it was Norimitsu, but was it? He shook his head. He had to find the diary in the past. He had to know why someone wanted to keep it from him so badly when it contained nothing but stories of a mother and her son—him.

‘ _Katosan is a hard youkai to understand. He says little, much like your father and your brother. That may be how youkai are. He has said that he would protect you at all costs, though. You are the heir to Musashi, as your father intended. Knowing that your brother can and will rule over the Western Lands, your father wanted you to have something, as well. He gave you Musashi, in a very odd sense, by having traded it to my father for me. But he also gave you his forest, and that, InuYasha, is something that not even my father could ever keep from you_.’

“Okay, if you’re ready . . . oh, sorry,” Kagome said as she bustled back into the room with an armful of things. “Never mind me,” she remarked. Trying to shove even more things into her backpack, InuYasha closed the diary and set it aside. She glanced over at him with a smile that faded as she stared at him. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and sighed. “I have to find it.”

“Find what?”

“Mother’s diary. I mean, I have to find it in the past.”

She sat down and pushed his bangs out of his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Mother said that Katosan was our guardian, after my old man died.”

“ _What?_ ”

“Yeah.”

Kagome digested that information with a concentrated frown. “But I don’t understand . . . if Katosan was your guardian, then why would he do all this?”

InuYasha’s eyes darkened as he stood up and grabbed her backpack. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Oi! Move it, Kagome! We ain’t got all day!” InuYasha grumbled as Kagome scrambled out of the well. She wrinkled her nose at his blustering but didn’t comment. “Did you leave anything behind?” he grouched as he hefted the heavy bag over his shoulder.

“Well, now that you mention it . . .” she said as she dropped her bundle and turned back to the well.

He caught her arm and swung her around, propelling her forward before he retrieved the parcel and stomped after her.

She giggled and let her head fall back, lifting her face toward the sun as she reveled in the perfection of the afternoon. He rolled his eyes at her silly antics but smiled. “Come on, wench. Everyone’s expecting us.”

“InuYasha?”

“What?”

She ran around to stand before him, the sunlight reflecting in her eyes as she stared at him. “I just wanted to say that I’m glad you came for me.”

“Keh. I told you I would.”

She shrugged. I know. I’m still glad though.”

He reached over and tweaked her nose. She blinked in surprise as her expression turned sad. “What did I do?”

He shook his head, a small grin turning up the corners of his lips. “Made me wait on you.” She opened her mouth to protest. “You can’t argue with me, Kagome. You’re just a pathetic human, remember?”

“Well, this pathetic human thinks that the far-superior hanyou dog-boy can just walk back to the village alone then.”

She stalked away. InuYasha dropped everything and ran after her. She shrieked as he tackled her. “See what I mean? Pathetic human,” he taunted as they rolled to a stop. He resisted the urge to grimace as the bandages pulled just a little. She rested atop his chest, and he locked his arms around her waist to keep her there. She squirmed. He groaned.

Kagome leaned up on her elbows. “I don’t think I deserved that,” she pointed out.

“Keh.”

“How do you figure? You were early.”

“You gonna keep talking or are you gonna kiss me?”

She shifted her eyes to the side as she considered his question. He growled and dragged her down to meet his lips. Her mouth was like an instant balm on his senses. The taste of her, the scent of her, the feel of her, so alive, so warm, so acquiescent against him blocked out all other thoughts as he savored the feel of her against him. He lifted his hands to her face, cradling her gently as she teased his lips with hers. She slipped her hands into his, pinned between the two of them as the rush of emotion warred with the tactile feel, body against body, heart against heart.

He realized absently that it would be so easy to let himself be lost in her, and he wouldn’t care. So long as she was with him, so long as she trusted him, so long as she believed in him, he would follow her anywhere. She drew him out, drove him to the boundaries of his control even as she tempered him, soothed him, held her sway over him with her gentle hands and her soft kisses. She sighed against him as her hands gripped his tighter, clinging to him as though she would die if she let go. Wherever she was, was where he belonged.

The scent of her washed over him, inebriated him, made his mind forget every single thing but the touch of her lips, the sweetness of her breath. She moaned into his mouth. He growled as he tasted her. She pressed into him, her desire a living thing, vibrant and rich, radiating purest heat from her soul, from her essence. She spoke to him with muted touches, lips brushing over his with nearly painful gentleness, her hands squeezing and releasing in his, pulsing with the beat of their hearts.

He rolled enough that she slid off his chest, leaned over her to trap her. The kiss deepened as he pulled his hand away. Stroking her cheek, tracing her ear, he sought to touch her very soul, needed to feel every whisper, every sensation, every breath she took into her body as though it were his own.

Kagome whimpered, her free hand wrapped around a fistful of his haori, pulling him against her as she arched her back to meet him. If she knew what she was doing, she gave no outward sign. With instinct borne of rampant emotion, she reacted to him on the basest of levels as he reveled in the wonder that was her. Her body quaked under his as the violent eruption of visceral heat shot through him, leaving him weak, leaving him breathless, leaving him exhilarated.

In the midst of things he didn’t comprehend, Kagome made sense to him. Though he protected her against the beasts in the world that might seek to harm her, she alone cosseted his heart against the things that were so much worse. The fear of the things that he couldn’t see, the things that came to him in fragments of dreams, of memories, Kagome knew, and she had the power to drive them away.

The insistent tug of her lips on his, the hesitant beauty behind her trembling hands as they sought his skin beneath the haori, beneath the undershirt drew a whine out of him, the consuming need to merge with her, to bind with her, to pledge his life to her, drove him forward, guided his hands, his kisses, as he dragged his lips from hers to sear her skin with his mouth as she softly trailed her fingernails up and down his spine.

“So this is the reason you did not heed my approach?”

Kagome gasped as InuYasha rolled to his feet, dragging Tetsusaiga from the scabbard as he turned to face the intruder. Kagome was slower to rise. InuYasha caught her hand, held her behind him. “Stay back,” he growled over his shoulder. She nodded. He turned his attention back to the youkai, cursing under his breath that he’d been too preoccupied to smell him when his scent was unmistakable, too familiar, and too fucking close.

“You should have stayed in hiding, Katosan.”

 

 

 

 

 


	55. Katosan's Return

“I thought you’d be happy to see me, InuYasha-sama . . . you aren’t?”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted, lifting Tetsusaiga to point at Katosan’s chest. “Where the hell have you been hiding?”

Katosan shrugged. “I came to issue a warning—and because I heard you were searching for me. Pardon my absence. I was a bit . . . indisposed.”

“Is that what you call it? A _warning?_ How dare you threaten Kagome? Give me one good reason that I should let you live.”

“Can you really kill me, InuYasha-sama?”

InuYasha growled. “With pleasure, Katosan.”

Katosan clucked his tongue, shook his head as he chuckled softly. “If you kill me, you’ll never hear my words of wisdom, will you?”

“Like I care. No one threatens Kagome!”

“Is that what she said? I didn’t threaten her. I simply told her some things she ought to know . . . things she ought to watch for; a bit of friendly advice.”

“You threatened to _rape_ her,” InuYasha snarled.

“Surely you jest! I wouldn’t demean myself to be with a mortal . . . no insult intended, of course.”

“I’m sure,” InuYasha remarked tightly. “None taken, you bastard.”

“Your precious Tetsusaiga . . . ? You think your pathetic fang is a match for me?”

“Pathetic, is it? Tetsusaiga was forged from my old man’s fang and bonded with mine. I’d trust my life with it.”

Katosan nodded slightly. “So be it.”

The inu-youkai flew forward, swiping his claws at InuYasha. InuYasha grabbed Kagome and leapt out of the way. He deposited her and ran at Katosan. He swung Tetsusaiga with all his might, a wide blue arc of energy shooting out of the blade and engulfing the meadow in a rippling explosion of light. The shimmering light lingered, the bright blue hovering over the earth like fog. It dissipated slowly as the smell of seared grass rose up strong, heavy. InuYasha gaped in the wake of blast, narrowing his eyes as he glanced at Tetsusaiga, at the bright blue of the glowing blade. ‘ _What the . . . ?_ ’

He didn’t have a chance to consider what had caused the attack because Katosan, while pushed back by the blast of energy, fought through it and lunged at InuYasha. InuYasha stepped aside and swung Tetsusaiga, catching Katosan’s hand with the tip of the Fang.

Katosan hissed in pain and jerked his hand back as he landed, hunkered down on the ground. Cradling his injured hand to his chest, Katosan stabbed InuYasha with a penetrating glare. InuYasha let the sword rest on the ground as he waited for Katosan to stand. “Get up, Katosan,” he taunted. “Keh! Mother was mistaken. You’re weak.”

Katosan’s arm dropped to his side as he rose slowly to his feet, eyes flashing with angry light, the tight hold on his emotions straining. “You’re reckless, InuYasha-sama. You’ve always been reckless. You’ve never considered the consequences of your actions. That is why you’ll fail.”

“And you’re fucking dead!” Dragging the blade along the ground, InuYasha closed in on Katosan fast. He lifted the blade with a mighty swing. Katosan managed to leap back in time to avoid it, bringing his hands up to knock InuYasha’s hold on Tetsusaiga loose. The sword flipped end over end through the air, landing point down in the grass. InuYasha didn’t spare it a second glance as he lunged at the youkai again. “ _Sankon-tetsusou!_ ”

He caught the top of Katosan’s armor. It crumbled away as the youkai jumped back. InuYasha landed on his feet, hunkered down with his fists on the ground, and he glared at Katosan as the youkai chuckled. “Do you fight me for yourself, or do you fight me for _her?_ ”

“That’s a fucking stupid question. I fight you for her.”

“You haven’t learned yet, have you? Sometimes you have to fight for yourself and leave the weak to perish.” Katosan held his hand out, palm up. A ball of red flame grew in his hand. It flew off his hand straight at InuYasha.

He dove to the side, avoiding the blast as he rolled to his feet and threw himself at Katosan again. Slicing his claws through the air, InuYasha felt a rush of sober satisfaction as his claws struck Katosan’s shoulder and shoved the youkai back. “I’ll always fight for Kagome!”

Katosan landed on his feet but slid back. Seconds later, he flew at InuYasha, catching the hanyou in the center of his chest and sending him sprawling into the dirt. “Now, InuYasha-sama . . . your lesson’s over.”

The fire blast that erupted from Katosan’s hand came at him too fast to be avoided. He tried to push off the ground, to leap out of the way. A sudden flash of blue erupted around him, and InuYasha stared as Tetsusaiga’s barrier engulfed him. Katosan’s flames hit him and dispersed as the Aoirotoku dimmed then faded.

“InuYasha!”

“Damn it, wench!” he growled as Kagome dropped down beside him. She shoved Tetsusaiga into his hands as he shoved her. She stumbled back. “Get back!”

Tetsusaiga transformed as InuYasha leapt off the ground and swung the fang in a wide arc. The Kaze no Kizu that shot off the blade as he brought it down raced across the meadow scorching the grass in a wave of flame that radiated off the earth and made the ground tremble.

Katosan pushed off the ground with a nasty chuckle. “The Kaze no Kizu did nothing to save your father,” he taunted. “It will not save you, either.”

“You’d be amazed at what I can do,” InuYasha growled as he brought up Tetsusaiga again. “Just try me.”

“Has Norimitsu come for you?” Katosan countered.

InuYasha stopped. “What do you know?”

Slowly, deliberately, Katosan drifted back to the ground. “Norimitsu. Has he come for you? Has he come for _her_?” he asked, nodding toward Kagome.

InuYasha gnashed his teeth, glowering at the inu-youkai. “Why would Sesshoumaru’s uncle come after me?”

Katosan made a mocking bow. “Indeed. Perhaps you ought to ask him. I’ve little doubt he’ll come for you. He hates hanyous almost as much as he hates humans . . . almost as much as he despised your mother.”

“I’m not done with you,” InuYasha pointed out as Katosan deliberately turned his back on him.

“Would you cut me down when I have my back to you, son of the Inu no Taisho?”

InuYasha growled in frustration as Katosan kept walking. He raced forward and stopped before the youkai. “No, I wouldn’t. Good thing you’re facing me now.”

Katosan glowered at InuYasha. “Don’t be a fool, InuYasha-sama. I’ve no desire to cut you down. On the contrary. I only seek to _serve_ you.”

“Cut the crap. I know what you want, and I know why you want it. Thing is, I don’t give a rat’s ass about Musashi, and I really don’t care about my supposed birth-right. All I care about is that you’ll never— _ever_ —threaten Kagome again.”

“Pathetic, to only care for the love of a mortal. I had hoped that you would outgrow such sensibilities.”

“Keh. I’ve had enough talking. You’re not walking out of here, Katosan.”

Katosan shook his head. “You cannot defeat me, InuYasha-sama. You have not the skill to do it. Be thankful that I choose to allow you to live.”

“Be thankful that I’ll kill you quick,” InuYasha snarled as he swung Tetsusaiga. It should have struck him. It should have killed him.   With a nasty chuckle, Katosan dissolved in a flash of red light that rose above the meadow and shot off toward the northwest.

“Damn it!” InuYasha snarled as he slammed Tetsusaiga into the scabbard, glaring after the retreating youkai.

“InuYasha!” Kagome called as she ran to his side. “Are you alright? Did he hit you?”

“Keh. I’m fine.”

“What was that wave attack?” she asked as she pulled his shirt open to inspect his chest where he’d been struck.

“I don’t know,” he admitted as he watched her survey him for any damage.

She frowned. “Not even a scratch,” she finally said.

“I told you.”

She wrinkled her nose as she checked his wrists, his hands. “You can humor me.”

“Keh! I _was_ humoring you.” He headed over to retrieve the bag. He stopped suddenly and stared at Kagome. “Did you do that?”

“Do what?” she asked as she walked beside him.

“That barrier . . . when he shot that flame at me.”

Kagome shook her head. “No . . . I got Tetsusaiga and it sort of moved, like it _wanted_ to be pointed at you.”

“Aoirotoku,” InuYasha muttered. _‘I can see why it would protect Kagome . . . but me?_ ’

“What’s that?”

“Aoirotoku,” he repeated. “The Blue Shield barrier . . . Myouga said something about it.”

She stopped and touched his arm. “What is going on with your sword? Don’t you think we should figure this out?”

He frowned at her. “You think I haven’t been trying?”

Kagome raised her eyebrows. “Things are starting to get a little weird.”

InuYasha started walking again.   “You’re telling me.” Between Tetsusaiga turning blue, Katosan’s reappearance, his mother’s diary, and Sesshoumaru’s uncle that apparently wanted both him and his own nephew dead, InuYasha felt like he was about to lose his mind.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The trees bent, swayed, gave credence to the ominous presence. The lynx youkai known as Ayamakita waited in silence. Her golden hair blew with the breeze, the fine tendrils as soft as the down on a baby bird. Her jewel-like green eyes scanned the forest as she tapped her claws on her forearms impatiently. Clad in the orangey-yellow with black spots of her kind, she blended into the background. ‘ _Where are you?_ ’ she wondered as her cat-like eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘ _How dare you keep me waiting . . . ?_ ’

“Ayamakita, how good of you to come.”

She turned her head toward the voice and shot him an insincere smile. “How good of you to summon me, Norimitsu. Tired of the stench of the dogs?”

Norimitsu winced, indulging the feline in her own game. “Careful, Ayamakita . . . Put your claws away. I have a task for you.”

She chuckled, a deep, sultry sound. “I’ve never bent to the sway of your kind. Why ever would I start now?”

“I need assistance, and I think you could be the one to help me.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say. I’ll bite. What is it you think is worth my while?”

Norimitsu grinned, tossing his raven hair over his shoulder. “I want you to destroy the sons of the Inu no Taisho . . . the Brothers of the Fang: Sesshoumaru and InuYasha.”

Her chin lifted as her eyes flew to lock with Norimitsu’s. “Sesshoumaru . . . . Now there’s a name that brings back memories . . . . Can’t you destroy them on your own?”

“So you don’t wish to garner revenge?” he countered.

“It was a long time ago . . . I burned my bridges, Norimitsu.”

Norimitsu deliberately let his eyes rake over the lynx. “And bridges were made to be rebuilt, weren’t they?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“The hanyou protects the miko, and the miko protects the Shikon no Tama.”

“The Shikon no Tama, you say?” Ayamakita thought it over. “They say that whoever possesses the jewel possesses the power of the gods, themselves. And you would let me take this?”

“I have no desire for the power of the gods. I only wish to see the brothers dead and bring an end to the house of the Inu no Taisho.”

Ayamakita nodded slowly, a small smile toying with the corners of her pouty lips. “Then consider the Brothers of the Fang as good as dead.”

Norimitsu watched the lynx youkai saunter off, disappearing into the foliage, blending in as though she were one with the forest. He smiled. ‘ _Ghosts come back to haunt you, Sesshoumaru . . . and this time nothing will save you from her wrath_ . . . .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha cringed and flattened his ears as Kagome squealed again, clapping her hands and bouncing up and down just a little as she and Sango discussed Miroku’s proposal. The monk-exterminator was conveniently missing, and InuYasha was about to sneak out the door to escape the blatant female happiness that was choking—and deafening—him.

“I’m so happy for you!” Kagome screeched. “When are you getting married then?”

Sango shrugged. “We haven’t actually decided yet.”

“Keh! Not soon enough, if I know that lecher,” InuYasha mumbled. No one heard him.

“Women!” Shippou intoned with a disgusted sigh as he climbed into InuYasha’s lap. “I don’t get what they’re all excited about.” He grew quiet a moment, sucking on the lollipop Kagome had brought him this time, then leaned back to look up at the hanyou. “InuYasha . . . why do humans have to get married? Isn’t that the same as taking a mate?”

“Keh! And what the hell are you doing, talking about that, runt?” InuYasha growled as he felt his cheeks redden.

Shippou shrugged then sniffed InuYasha in confusion. “You mean you haven’t made Kagome your mate yet? What are you waiting for?” InuYasha didn’t think. Instinctive reaction took over, and he flipped the kitsune’s nose. “What’d I say?” Shippou wailed as tears filled his eyes.

InuYasha set the kit on the floor and stomped out of the hut. Shippou’s cries escalated as InuYasha flattened his ears and headed for the solitude of Goshinboku.

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted as he ran through the forest toward his destination. All the talk of human marriages and mating was unsettling. ‘ _Why would Shippou think that Kagome and I . . . that we . . . ? Keh!_ ’

InuYasha scowled as he increased his speed. ‘ _Damn that monk . . . this is all_ his _fault . . . he just_ had _to ask Sango to marry him . . ._ .’

He reached Goshinboku in record time and leaped up high in the branches without missing a stride. ‘ _You know why Shippou thinks that, baka_ ,’ his conscience spoke up, ‘ _because her scent is all over you, and your scent is all over her. It was an automatic assumption, given what the two of you have been doing lately . . ._ .’

The entirely too pleasant memory of Kagome’s kisses by the well assailed him, and InuYasha nearly fell off of his perch as he groaned. He made a face as he forced the memories aside. ‘ _I wouldn’t_ be _in this predicament if she didn’t smell like she does, or if she didn’t smile at me the way she does . . . if she didn’t look at me like she thinks I can defend her against anything . . . . Ah, who the hell am I trying to fool? I’d still want her . . . ._ ’

He sighed. The real problem wasn’t what he did or didn’t want. His trouble was that he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to focus on. Before he’d always had one singular goal. In the beginning, his goal had been to survive. As he’d grown older, his goal had become obtaining the Shikon no Tama to become a full youkai. After he’d met Kikyou, then his goal had shifted to desiring to be with her. And then Naraku . . . and Kagome.

It had occurred to him before, that Kagome was the difference to him. When she released him from Kikyou’s arrow, she’d given him a new focus. It was a strange thing, really. It would have been so easy, if she hadn’t broken the jewel. If she hadn’t, he wouldn’t have traveled with her. He wouldn’t have gotten to know her. He’d have found a way to get the Shikon no Tama from her and would have used it to become a full-youkai. He didn’t have a doubt in his mind that if that had happened he would have been dead by now, too.

When Kagome had inadvertently shattered the jewel, InuYasha had been furious. Furious with the fates that had stuck him with a useless, pathetic, helpless human as the only one who could actually see the shards of the jewel, furious that she didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of what had happened, furious that she was apparently Kikyou’s reincarnation . . . .

When had he stopped thinking of her in terms of his ‘jewel detector’. Had he ever really thought that at all? ‘ _No, I never did. I used that as an excuse, sure. But after Kikyou was resurrected, I never really thought of her as anyone but . . . Kagome . . . ._ ’

On the one hand, his instincts told him that Katosan was up to something. It was easy to assume that he simply wanted InuYasha to survive in hopes that he could be persuaded to reclaim Musashi. InuYasha shook his head. He didn’t want Musashi. He never had. He’d had far too much of the ruling class as a child. He’d be damned before he ever willingly returned to that, and he’d be double-damned if he’d let Katosan manipulate him into doing that just to return the land to Sesshoumaru.

Then, too, was Norimitsu. Whatever his agenda was, InuYasha wanted no part of it. He’d never even met the bastard before, and it was entirely too odd that the youkai knew so much about him. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that Norimitsu did possess Izayoi’s diary. There were too many coincidences. How else would Norimitsu know what InuYasha or his mother smelled like? How else would he have known when InuYasha would be human? ‘ _If I find him, I’ll find Mother’s diary . . . but why the hell does he have it?_ ’

And Tetsusaiga. What the fuck was going on with his sword? It all started when he’d had that miniscule crack repaired. Myouga had admitted that Totosai had done something to it. Still, it made no sense, either. The blue aura that made the fang glow with a curious light was growing steadily darker. Almost the shade of the noonday sky, today it had chosen to cast Aoirotoku on him when Kagome pulled it out of the earth. Why did it respond to her at all? She was human, mortal. The blade was a youkai blade, and even though it possessed a barrier that prevented youkai from touching it, it had also never reacted in the slightest to a human, other than the one night when he had been human and Aoirotoku had saved Kagome.

He sighed. On top of all that, Kagome still held the Shikon no Tama; add to that the idea of purifying the jewel worried him more than he dared to admit, and, well, it seemed like the only things he was positive about were his feelings for Kagome. She gave him calm, gave him center, gave him reason in the uncertainty. She was his light, and even when she was sad, she still gave to him, because that was who she was, and that was what she needed to do. In the same way that he was driven to protect her from harm, she was driven by the desire to . . . .

Deliberately, InuYasha cut off his thoughts, unwilling to give a name to what he knew, ultimately, was her reason. She’d written as much in her diary. She’d let him read her innermost thoughts, her feelings, and he knew why, even if he didn’t understand. He might never understand . . . .

“InuYasha? Are you up there?”

“Aahh!” he screamed as he plummeted through the branches and landed on his back under Goshinboku. He sat up slowly, glaring at Kagome, who had rushed over to kneel down beside him. “Don’t sneak up on me, wench!”

“I didn’t sneak,” she pointed out reasonably, “and what about your super-keen doggie nose?”

“Keh! Leave my ‘doggie nose’ outta this,” he grumbled.

She frowned at him thoughtfully. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head. A wicked sparkle lit the depths of her gaze, and Kagome giggled. “You’ve been falling out of an awful lot of trees lately, InuYasha . . . something bothering you? You know, you really ought to talk about such things . . . .”

“Oh, you’re funny, sneaky wench.” He tweaked her nose.

She tweaked him back.

“Oi!” he sputtered indignantly, “you’re not supposed to do that to me!”

“Well, I didn’t deserve that, either.”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted and closed his eyes as he lifted his chin. “The male is _always_ the disciplinarian,” he remarked haughtily. “It’s the male’s responsibility to make sure that the female behaves, and that the pups learn respect and—why are you looking at me like that?”

Staring at him with her mouth hanging open and a rather shocked expression on her face, InuYasha felt the burn of embarrassment creeping up his cheeks as she gaped. “But doesn’t that only apply to—”

“I _know_ what it applies to!” He shot off the ground and stomped away.

Kagome ran up beside him. “So . . . you’re saying that I should let you tweak my nose whenever you think I’ve been naughty, and that I am not allowed to do the same to you?”

He considered that. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

“And how is that fair?”

“Keh! Fair has nothing to do with it. It’s the way of the world.”

“What world?”

“This one!”

“Not in my world, it isn’t,” she grumbled.

He rolled his eyes. “In the world of the youkai, that’s exactly how it is, and you might as well get used to it, because—”

“Because why?” she cut in softly, studiously avoiding his gaze.

His embarrassed flush was back with a vengeance. “Because, since you travel with me . . . under my protection . . . then I have the right to make sure you don’t get too sneaky, wench.”

The quiet hurt in her expression was a hard thing for him to see. His words hadn’t been what she thought he’d say, and she shook her head just a little, as if to ask herself what she was thinking. She sighed, and her smile was paper-thin. “I told Sango I’d bring her back some material for a nice kimono. I think I want to go back and get that . . . .”

InuYasha flinched. ‘ _Baka! Baka, baka, baka!_ ’ He watched as she walked away, shoulders slumped and looking entirely too defeated for the Kagome he knew . . . . “Wait! Oi! Kagome!” He ran to catch up with her. She wouldn’t look at him. “I’ll come with you,” he offered. “I, uh, was sorta harsh with Shippou . . . .”

She shook her head. “I think . . . I’d rather do this by myself.”

He watched as she turned and ran to the well. She didn’t look back as she hopped in. She didn’t wait for him, after all.

He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He just didn’t know how to say what it was that he should have said. He wasn’t good with words. She knew that. _‘Excuses aren’t going to help you, InuYasha. Eventually you’ll have to tell Kagome the truth_. ‘ With a sigh, he dug into his haori, pulled out the red stone, the wishing stone. He stared at it for a long time, holding it in his hand before he brought it to his chest. ‘ _I’ll make that wish now, Kagome . . ._ ’ and he closed his eyes to make his wish.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Ayamakita  
> _** _North Night Rain_ …


	56. Schoolin' the Hanyou

InuYasha pushed open Kagome’s window with a sigh. She wasn’t in the shrine. He’d known that almost the moment he’d jumped out of the well. He considered tracking her down but she always seemed a little irritated whenever he did that. Ears drooping, he stared around her room instead, wishing he hadn’t been so stupid, wishing that he had been able to tell her the things he thought instead of sticking his foot in it, like he always did.

Staring at his mother’s diary on the nightstand, InuYasha frowned. Reading that book always led to more questions. He had enough of those swimming around his head. He wasn’t so sure he needed to add to that. Next to it was another book. He picked it up slowly, turning it over in his hands as Kagome’s words came back to him, ‘ _It’s a journal. You don’t have to write it in, if you don’t want to. I just thought maybe . . . if you wanted to . . . you could put your painful memories in that. Then you’d never have to think about them again ._. . .’

Or maybe he could write down the things that he’d never be able to tell Kagome . . . . ‘ _It worked for her, didn’t it? Maybe she didn’t know that you’d read it, but it still worked . . . ._ ’ He stared at it for a few more minutes, wondering if he wasn’t hoping for more than he dared.

InuYasha grabbed a pen off her desk and hopped back out the window. ‘ _At this point_ ,’ he figured, ‘ _anything is worth a shot_ . . . .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome sighed as she flopped onto her bed. Freshly bathed and pleasantly sleepy from the warmth of the scented bathwater, she wanted nothing more than to sleep. ‘ _I ought to get up and get my pajamas on_ ,’ she thought as her eyes drifted closed. But she was too warm, too comfortable, too content to do it. ‘ _Maybe a quick nap_ ,’ she thought idly. ‘ _Just a few minutes . . . then I’ll get dressed and go back . . ._ .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The window opened with a whisper. InuYasha climbed inside, eyes immediately coming to rest on the sleeping woman. ‘ _What the—? Why isn’t she dressed?_ ’ A low growl escaped as he stared in confusion. Wrapped in one of her fluffy pink towels, she was definitely sleeping. But why . . . ? ‘ _Is she . . . did she think . . . she couldn’t have . . . . No . . ._.’

Two things became instantly apparent to him as he smashed himself against the wall and stared in shocked silence at her. Firstly, she hadn’t realized that he would follow her, and that was probably the real reason that she didn’t bother dressing right away. Secondly, even if his mind kept telling him to climb back out that window and seek refuge in Goshinboku until she woke up and did something about the oversight, his body wouldn’t move. Lying on her stomach with her knee hitched up and her arms tucked under her pillow, he couldn’t see much of her face, hidden as it was in both the pillow and under the towel she had wrapped her hair into.

The creaminess of her pale flesh glowed in the gentleness of the filtered moonlight trickling through her window, the warmth of her miko aura filled the room with waves of light. She called out to him, even in sleep, and he whined softly as he tried to fight the threads of her soul that reached out to snare him. Her pulse was a drumbeat to his ears, a constant pounding, a discerning music. He leaned back further, willing himself to move, to retreat. Letting himself be lost in Kagome was something that would be much too easy, something that he’d never be able to escape from again . . . .

The intangible beauty that was Kagome spoke to his heart, beckoned him closer. With a shift of her body, her scent wafted stronger, damning him and saving him in one rending wave. She sighed as she buried her face deeper into her pillow. InuYasha growled again, unreasonable jealousy over the inanimate object that she clung to in sleep welling up like an ugly thing, a bitter pain, and he had to restrain his desire to lash out against the unsympathetic rival. ‘ _She ought to be holding me like that, not some stupid pillow_ ,’ he fumed then made a disgusted face at his own thoughts.

The youkai part of him growled viciously in his head. There was something unsettling about her scent, something different, something he’d caught before but that normally eluded him. What was it?

He still held back, unwilling or unable to close the distance to the bed, the few sparse feet that separated him and her. Her lure was too great, too strong, too hard to resist. He’d always thought he was strong. He’d fought some of the most powerful youkai and had come out victorious. Yet here he stood, feet away from the woman that his heart had told him long ago was meant to be his, and he couldn’t move. Her scent distracted him . . . .

‘ _It’s that towel, baka! That’s what it is, because you know that’s the only thing she’s wearing—the_ only _thing. Don’t be stupid . . . she wants to be with you as badly as you need to be with her ._ . . .’

‘ _Shuddup_.’

Deliberately ignoring the desire to knock his head against the wall in frustration, InuYasha grabbed the windowsill. ‘ _Keh! I’ll sit in Goshinboku till she’s ready to put something other than that on . . . ._ ’ He shot one more look over at her.

“Inu . . . Yasha . . .” she mumbled.

Closing his eyes with a heavy sigh, InuYasha let go of the window and hesitantly stepped over to the bed. He sat down, careful not to disturb her. Tugging the towel that held her hair, InuYasha gently untangled the length of it with his claws. She sighed almost happily as he worked. By the time he had combed all the snarls out of her hair, he had assimilated a measure of her calm.

With a soft whimpering moan, Kagome came awake. Burying her face in her pillow once again just for a moment before she rolled over and sat up. Eyelids heavy and gaze glazed with the vacancy of true sleep, she blinked a few times then yawned before focusing on him. “You came after me?”

“Keh. I told you I would.”

She idly scratched her knee and frowned. “I only meant to lie down for a few minutes. Let me grab a few things, and—”

“And clothes,” he muttered.

“Hmm?” He didn’t answer as he got up and stomped over to the window. “InuYasha?”

“Get dressed, Kagome! What are you thinking? Anyone can smell you like that, and—”

She gasped softly, obviously having forgotten what it was she was—or wasn’t—wearing. Before she could throw anything at him, he ducked out the window and shot over to Goshinboku.

Kagome stared down at her towel with a mortified flush and wide, gaping eyes.   She dressed in record time, mumbling invectives under her breath at her own stupidity, that she hadn’t realized InuYasha would come after her. She ought to have known. He didn’t leave her to her own devices often, and whether she was upset with him or not when she’d left, she really should have known then.

With a deep breath, Kagome stalked over to the window and leaned out into the night. “InuYasha?” she called softly. “Do you want to come back inside?”

She waited for a moment, watching the Sacred Tree, trying to discern movement. Either he didn’t hear her or he was deliberately ignoring her. She sighed. ‘ _He probably thinks you did that on purpose, that you were trying to make a move on him_.’ She made a face as she turned her back to the window and sank down on the side of her bed. They were obviously not going to go back tonight. It was well after midnight now. The trouble was, after such a long nap, Kagome was anything but tired.

InuYasha cautiously stuck his head inside the window, sniffing the air and looking around with a wary stare. Apparently satisfied that she was adequately dressed, he dropped to the floor and slumped down against the wall. “When did you come after me?” she asked into the stilted silence.

He shrugged. “About ten minutes after you left.”

She frowned. “I didn’t see you.”

“You were already gone. I just sat in Goshinboku.”

Kagome scooted back on the bed and patted the space beside her.

He stared at her as though he thought she might be up to something sneaky before he got up and sank down beside her. As soon as he was settled, she snuggled against him, and he grinned despite himself. “I should have known you had ulterior motives,” he grumbled but squeezed her shoulders.

“I’m an open book,” she argued. “Nothing ‘ulterior’ about my motives.”

“Keh. I suppose you’re not tired at all now, are you?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I could read your mother’s diary to you.”

He sighed but finally handed over the book without further comment. Kagome wiggled around until she was comfortable. InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Can’t you be still, wench?”

“I am,” she argued.

“Uh huh.”

She shot him a look before cracking open the book.

“ _‘I suppose I have come to the part of this letter where I should tell you some truths about your actual heritage, things that you need to know before you decide to start a family of your own. Though I wish your father had been able to explain these things to you, because they’re things that humans don’t really understand, I shall seek to explain to you what was explained to me, and in the telling, perhaps some things about your own circumstances should become clearer_.

“ _‘You were born from a union of your father, a youkai, and me, a human. As such, you are a hanyou, and as such, I’m sure you’ve struggled with the idea that you are both and yet neither. Let me explain a few things to you. No hanyou is ever accidental. There isn’t such a thing as an accidental child coming from a pairing such as this. Your father explained to me that most youkai mate for life, or at least until death, as was the case with him and Sesshoumaru’s mother. She died soon after Sesshoumaru’s birth. In actuality, I doubt that your brother remembers a thing about the woman, even her scent. Even then, it took many years—over a century, before your father and I met, and I think, in his own way, your father did care for Sesshoumaru’s mother, even until the end_.

“ ‘ _Youkai choose, InuYasha. They choose when to produce a child, and it is a complete accordance between both male and female for this to occur. It is a bit more complicated for a youkai and a mortal. Your father chose to have a child with me. He gave you to me, entrusted me with the task of seeing you grow. Know, InuYasha, that you were chosen. You were wanted. You were loved_.’ ”

Kagome sighed and smiled, tilting her head back to look up at InuYasha. “I always thought you were,” she said softly.

“Keh,” he snorted as he twisted a lock of her hair around his index finger. “You gonna read or you gonna tease me?”

She giggled and turned her attention back to the diary.

“ _‘When a hanyou chooses a youkai, the youkai would ultimately make the decision to have children. The youkai, being the dominant party, would govern this choice. I doubt this would apply to you, however, I think it must be explained_ —’ ”

Blushing, Kagome handed the diary to InuYasha. “I think you should read this,” she blurted. “It doesn’t really have anything to do with _me_ , after all . . . .”

InuYasha felt his own face warming with the thoughts being discussed in his mother’s handwriting. “I don’t need to read it,” he argued. “I wasn’t planning on—I mean, we weren’t going to—It doesn’t mean anything, and—Damn it, give me that.”

He snatched the diary away as Kagome scooted off the end of the bed, mumbling something about needing water before she hurried out of the room.

InuYasha scowled at the retreating girl then stared at the diary with a dubious frown.

Why did he just know that the rest of this diary entry was going to be the worst of them that he’d heard or read so far? With a slow shake of his head, InuYasha opened the book and haltingly began to read.

‘ _I think it must be explained so that, when the time comes for you and whomever you choose as your mate, you know everything you need to know.   Should you choose a human girl, you need to know this: Every month there are two times you can create a child. On the night of the new moon, your child would be completely human, completely mortal. On the night of the full moon, your child would be full hanyou, like you. Because on this night your youkai blood is at its strongest, take greater care that you do not lose control of your emotions. Humans are tougher than many youkai like to believe. But we are still mortal, after all, and you don’t wish to hurt your mate should you lose control of yourself. These are the only two times that it is possible, regardless of your mate’s fertile cycle. Your father says that, given time, her body should start mirroring your own, as far as her cycles. But you must choose, InuYasha. You may feel that having a mortal child might be best, but understand this, too. Mortals die all too easily, and while a hanyou’s life might not be easy, the best men are the ones who must overcome greater obstacles to become better people_.’

InuYasha snapped the book closed and dropped it onto the nightstand. ‘ _Yep, worst one so far_ . . . .’

 

 

: **:: _8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8_ ::**:

 

 

“So tell me, InuYasha . . . what’s on your mind.”

InuYasha shifted his eyes to stare at Miroku over the campfire. “Nothing.”

Miroku leaned back on his bedroll with a yawn. “I doubt that. You’ve barely said anything since we left the village.” His discerning eyes stared at InuYasha just before he broke into a wide smile. “I get it. This has something to do with Kagome.”

Folding his arms together under the sleeves of his haori, InuYasha closed his eyes and lifted his chin haughtily. “Shut up, Monk.”

He laughed outright at that. They’d been away from the village for three days. Word arrived just after Kagome and his return that one of the nearby villages had an infestation of roach youkai. They’d taken care of that in short order but it had gotten dark before they’d reached their village, so they were camping out again.

“Perhaps if you talked about what was troubling you . . . ?”

“Keh.”

Miroku sighed. “InuYasha, may I ask you a question?”

For some reason, InuYasha had a feeling he wasn’t going to like whatever it was the monk wanted to know. Still, he nodded once. “You can _ask_. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

Miroku grimaced. “Have you and Kagome . . . ?”

Instant heat exploded in InuYasha’s face as he tried to stave back the furious blush. “You’re such a fucking pervert.”

Miroku waved his hands quickly, hoping to appease InuYasha before the hanyou thought to take his head off for his curiosity. “Just listen, InuYasha! I only wondered because—”

InuYasha’s growling cut the monk short.

“—I, too, care about Kagome, and—”

Growling escalated into a vicious snarl.

“—You ought to marry her if you want to make her your mate.”

The snarl cut off abruptly, and InuYasha sat back with a thoughtful frown. “What do you mean?” he asked grudgingly.

Miroku, obviously satisfied that InuYasha wasn’t going to try to beat on him at the moment, relaxed. “I mean, she’s human. Humans marry. Didn’t your father marry your mother?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Yeah. So? Youkai don’t.”

Miroku took his time dropping another log on the fire. “You’re right, of course. Youkai don’t always. But your father did, and Kagome comes from a shrine, doesn’t she?”

‘ _Sometimes_ ,’ InuYasha thought with an inward sigh, he really hated it when the lecher was right . . . . ‘ _Yet another thing to worry about . . . Let’s add it to that growing list_. _Can this whole situation possibly get any worse?_ ’

With a low groan, InuYasha dropped his forehead into his hand as the whirling presence grew stronger, approaching rapidly and skidding to a stop right beside him.

“Oi, monk . . . dog-shit. Where’s Kagome?”

“She’s not here, Kouga. Guess that means you can leave now,” InuYasha snarled.

For some ungodly reason, Kouga decided to sit down, instead. “What’d you do? Scare her off with your stench?”

“Not hardly—”

“InuYasha and I were discussing youkai mating rituals,” Miroku commented happily.

“We were not!” InuYasha hollered.

Kouga snorted. “Oh? I’m surprised dog-shit knows any of them.”

InuYasha growled a warning that Kouga chose to ignore. “Get the hell outta here, Kouga! I don’t need your advice.”

Kouga looked surprised. “You’ve already mated with her then? I’m surprised she’d have you . . . .”

“No, InuYasha and Kagome haven’t—”

“ _Shut the hell up!_ ”

Kouga suddenly chuckled. “Well, will you look at that? Nice shade of red there, mutt-face.”

“We like to call that one ‘Monk-in-Pain’,” Miroku supplied.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be ‘Monk-is-Dead’ if the monk doesn’t shut the fuck up!” InuYasha snarled.

“I think you struck a nerve,” Kouga commented.

“So it would seem,” Miroku agreed.

“So I take it you haven’t pissed on Kagome yet, right?”

“For the last fucking time, I’m not pissing on Kagome!” InuYasha snarled.

“Yeah, yeah, calm down, mutt-face,” Kouga remarked. “You know what I meant.”

Miroku interrupted when InuYasha’s growling grew a little louder. “Kouga, Kagome tells me that you’ve recently taken a mate. Do you have any words of wisdom for InuYasha?”

“I don’t need—”

“Actually, I do,” Kouga interrupted. “Just do it, InuYasha. Most of us youkai would require a day or two to accomplish it. For you, being the mangy dog-shit you are, should only take you a minute or two, tops. Can’t guarantee Kagome would like that, though.”

“What do you mean, a minute or two? What should take all day?” InuYasha demanded.

Kouga shook his head slowly, a smug grin surfacing on his features. “You really are a baka, aren’t you, mutt-face?”

At the confused look on InuYasha’s face, Miroku coughed and mumbled, “Mating, InuYasha.”

“Damn. Even the monk is smarter than you.”

“I’m not fucking stupid!” InuYasha snarled. “I’ve just never— _Get lost, mangy wolf!_ ”

“Oh, look! Fire-rat-haori red! Congratulations, Kouga!”

“ _Shut . . . up!_ ”

Miroku shook his head. “I’d have to agree with Kouga on this, InuYasha . . . one or two minutes might not be advisable . . . .”

InuYasha glared at the monk. “I’ll bet you’ve never, either . . . Ha!” InuYasha straightened up a little, regaining some of his composure with the knowledge that Miroku wasn’t any more experienced than he was when Miroku’s face blossomed with embarrassed color, too. “That’s what you get for only kissing youkai,” he added.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Kouga said as he made a face. “You’ve been kissing youkai, monk?”

“Not intentionally,” Miroku muttered. “Thanks, InuYasha . . . .”

“Not a problem.”

Kouga got up and stretched. “Well, I was just doing a patrol for the night . . . unlike dog-shit, here, I’ve got a woman waiting at home for me . . . .” He turned to go but stopped to toss over his shoulder, “I knew I should have kept Kagome when I kidnapped her. At least _I’ve_ never been too damn stupid to know what she wants.”

“Oi! Get back here!” InuYasha snarled as he shot to his feet, whipping Tetsusaiga free of its scabbard as the blade transformed in a flash of light.

Miroku watched in amazement as Kouga sped off. He stared at Tetsusaiga’s blade and frowned. “InuYasha? Why does Tetsusaiga look normal again?”

“Huh?” InuYasha stared down at the silver fang with a frown of his own. “I dunno . . . Oh, hell, I don’t get it! What the fuck is wrong with Tetsusaiga?”

“You mean you don’t know what’s happening to it?”

InuYasha flopped down on his side, raking his claws in the dirt. “Hell! One minute it’s blue and throwing barriers around everywhere. The next it’s normal, and I can’t cast a barrier at all, and on top of all that, the _shade_ of blue keeps changing, too . . . . Damn that old man . . . damn _my_ old man . . . .”

“What old men?”

InuYasha sighed and growled at the same time. “Totosai . . . and my father.”

“What did your father do?”

“That’s just it. I have no fucking idea. He told Myouga and Totosai to do something to it, and they did but no one will tell me what, just that it’s supposed to strengthen Tetsusaiga.”

Miroku sighed and shook his head. “Your father had Tetsusaiga forged to protect your mortal mother, correct?”

InuYasha nodded and flopped over onto his back, staring at the stars and wondering if Kagome was looking at them, too. “Yeah.”

“Maybe,” Miroku said slowly, “it isn’t something you have to do, to unlock the power of Tetsusaiga . . . .”

InuYasha smiled vaguely as a shooting star streaked across the heavens. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe it’s something you’re supposed to feel.” Miroku yawned and stretched out on his bedroll. “Night, InuYasha.”

InuYasha was still awake when Miroku’s light snoring filled the quiet air. ‘ _Something I’m supposed to . . . feel?_ ’

 

 

 

 

 


	57. Jealousy

Kagome stared at the calculus book without actually seeing the page as she masked her preoccupation behind the guise of being studious.

‘ _Just ask him what’s bothering him_ ,’ she told herself as she peeked over at the hanyou, hunkered down by the fire. Staring pensively into the flames, he’d looked like that all day. The few times she’d tried to speak to him, he’d either ignored her completely or had been so preoccupied that he hadn’t given her more than an affirmative grunt in answer.

She sighed and blinked, widening her eyes as she focused her concentration on the book under her nose. ‘ _He won’t tell me till he’s ready, if he tells me at all. Sometimes I wish I could read his mind . . . ._ ’

Giving up on her studying, Kagome closed the book and dropped it back into the bag. Turing her attention back to her companion, she sat up on her knees and cleared her throat before she began to speak. “InuYasha, do you really think Sesshoumaru will tell you anything about Norimitsu?”

InuYasha shook his head slightly then blinked as he glanced at Kagome. “What?”

“I asked if you really think Sesshoumaru will tell you anything about Norimitsu.”

InuYasha shrugged, his gaze returning to the fire. “Probably not, unless I hack at him a few times.”

With a stifled sigh, Kagome dug out a cup of ramen and filled it with boiling water. After waiting the requisite time, she took the cup and chopsticks over to the hanyou. “Here,” she said as she knelt down beside him. He took the cup without looking away from the fire. “You know, if you talk about it, it may not be so bad.”

He blinked absently. “What?”

Kagome shook her head and stood, retrieving her bathing supplies out of her bag along with a change of clothes. “I’m going to go take a bath,” she remarked in a very loud tone. “Did you hear me? InuYasha? Hello?” She sighed and shook her head, raising her voice to repeat again, “I’m going to take a bath, all right?” After a moment, she rolled her eyes and stomped off. He hadn’t even acknowledged her words.

‘ _Well, I told him. If he didn’t listen, that’s his own fault_ ,’ she thought as she followed the small path toward the stream.

She stripped off her clothes and, mesh bathing bag in hand, she waded out into the shallow stream toward the waterfall that cascaded from the high, jagged cliff above. ‘ _Come to think of it, he’s been acting strange since he read that stuff in his mother’s diary . . . . I wonder if that’s what’s bothering him?_ ’

Unfortunately just remembering what was written in his mother’s diary was something that Kagome couldn’t even bring herself to mention to InuYasha without blushing, herself . . . .

She’d read the passage after she came back. He shoved the diary under her nose and had mumbled something about her finding it interesting. She’d barely been able to finish it. By the time she had, she worried that her face was going to remain in a constant flush for the next hundred years or so, or at least until she died . . . .

‘ _Every month there are two times you can create a child. On the night of the new moon, your child would be completely human, completely mortal. On the night of the full moon, your child would be full hanyou, like you._ ’

With a soft groan, Kagome stood under the waterfall, letting the coldness seep into her skin as she tried to push the diary’s words out of her mind. Easier said than done. Still, the water felt good even if a little cool. It had been a little warm today, and she was thankful for the relief afforded her.

She washed her hair and left the conditioner in while she took her time scrubbing her skin until it glowed in the blue moonlight. Squeezing her eyes closed, she tilted her head back, letting the water flow over her to rinse her hair and body, turning to catch the water as the foaming spray gathered around her hips.

She stepped out from under the water flow and ran her hands down the length of her hair to wring out the excess water. An odd choking sound drew her attention, and she gasped softly, dropping to her knees on the rocky riverbed, and with a wince, she didn’t think as she opened her mouth and screamed the first word that came to mind, “ _Osuwari!_ ”

InuYasha blinked in surprise and stared at her, his eyes flashing with irritation that only grew worse when she screamed ‘the word’. “Forget, did you? That don’t fucking work anymore, bitch.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _I know that scent . . . ._ ’

Sesshoumaru shifted his gaze around the surrounding trees without moving his head as he looked for the origin of that unmistakable fragrance. “Come out, Ayamakita. I recognize you.”

The lynx youkai sauntered out of the trees, a small smile quirking the corners of her blood red lips. “Sesshoumaru . . . it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Sesshoumaru blinked slowly, staring at the lynx without changing his expression. “What is it you want?”

Ayamakita pouted. “You’ve always thought the worst of me, haven’t you?”

“On the contrary. You cannot help being a faithless bitch. It was my mistake to think you could.”

“A lynx can’t change her spots?”

“Do you wish for an answer?”

She ambled closer, reaching out, tracing his cheek with her long clawed finger. “Still as cold as you’ve always been, aren’t you?” Leaning in closer, breath brushing over his ear. “But you _were_ hot when you wished to be, Sesshoumaru . . . very hot . . . .”

Shifting his eyes to the side to stare at her, Sesshoumaru regarded her for a moment before answering. “Tell me what it is you seek, Ayamakita.”

“Do I have to have a reason to seek you out, Sesshoumaru?”

“Don’t you?”

She purred as she caressed Mokomoko-sama. “You wound me. Not interested in rekindling that old flame? Not even a kiss for old time’s sake?”

“How many others have you kissed with those lips, Aya? I care not for such tainted flesh.”

“Oh, great Sesshoumaru-sama . . . you used to burn for my lips.”

“Did I? I don’t recall.”

“Let me remind you.”

She pulled him down, taking possession of his lips, drawing on him, a kiss meant to kindle his body as she traced his lips, his fangs, with her tongue. Coaxing him with an unspoken promise, her mouth burning under his, she kissed him softly with a measured seduction, demanding yet easily sucking as she drew on his bottom lip. Nibbling at him, harsh enough to excite but not nearly enough to draw blood, she held on around his neck, pressing her body into his, against his, wanton desire, maddening lust, closer, hotter, her blood seared her veins, and her contented purr filled the air.

Sesshoumaru leaned away, stared down at her with his bored gaze. The same kiss that used to fire his blood, and yet he felt nothing.

Ayamakita smiled insincerely, barely hiding her irritation that he didn’t respond to her kiss. She laughed nastily as she said, “I hear you’ve been keeping company with a human and an imp . . . surely you get lonely? Even you have a heart inside that aloof shell, don’t you?”

Sesshoumaru strode away, deliberately dismissing the lynx youkai. She glared at him. “Sesshoumaru . . . I’ll be back . . . fight against it all you’d like. I know you still desire me.”

He didn’t deign to answer as he kept moving. ‘ _She wants something_ ,’ he mused. A slow grin turned the corners of his mouth; an expression that didn’t reach his eyes. ‘ _Ayamakita . . . what is your game?_ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome’s soft gasp was audible. InuYasha blinked as he watched her. His body was so acutely attuned to her that even if the sound hadn’t been heard he would have known. She shivered in the water, whether from the cold or as a result of his stare, he didn’t know. A growl escaped him as he stalked forward into the stream, unmindful that he was fully dressed. He didn’t give a damn.

“Explain yourself,” he demanded as she scooted backward, one arm trying pitifully to cover her chest while the other arm was helping her keep her balance as she moved.

“I was taking a bath, I told you—”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I’d heard you tell me that?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if you’d listened to me?”

His growl told her that she’d apparently overstepped her bounds. He lunged after her. She scooted faster.

“Damn it, stop running from me,” he snarled as he grabbed at her and just missed.

She didn’t listen. Darting past him and toward the shore, InuYasha turned just in time to see the silhouette of her shining flesh as she whipped her towel around herself.

‘ _Claim her!_ ’ his blood singed his veins. Like a chant, like a mantra, InuYasha willed the papery voices out of his mind, willed his anger that she’d voluntarily leave his protection, willed the image of her, standing naked under the waterfall, from his mind before he lost the last tenuous hold he had over his self-control. The vision grew more vivid, brighter in his mind. The way her skin had shone, blue in the palest moonlight, the way her hair had glistened like a million stars caught in the strands . . . her scent had come to him on the feathers of the soft breeze. It wrapped around his body, and with a force of vengeance that he had never felt before, the hot surge of desire had nearly precluded his powers of reason. With a loud growl, he lunged toward shore—toward Kagome.

By the time he reached her, she’d somehow managed to struggle into her clothes while hiding under her towel. He grabbed her arm before she could dart away and swung her around to face him, bring her up against his chest as he glared down at her. She gasped again as her body pressed against his so tightly that it coiled his stomach in a tangible fire. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he demanded, his voice a quiet contradiction to the luster of his glare.

She swallowed hard, her eyes sparkling in the wan light of the moon. “I told you,” she said again, her voice quivering as her bravado failed, “I was—”

“Keh! Damn it! You deliberately left my protection! Do you know what could have happened to you?”

She nodded as angry tears clouded her eyes, as they glistened like diamonds on the spiky ends of her lashes. “Yes, nothing, because—”

He smelled the salt of her emotion, and the scent served to fuel his burning anger. “You can’t take those kinds of risks! Don’t you know that I’d—”

Jerking out of his hold, Kagome stumbled back but caught herself. “I told you where I was going! I said it loud enough for you to hear! It’s not _my_ fault you were too wrapped up in your own thoughts to hear me! Don’t you blame this on me! Don’t you _dare!_ ”

He shot forward, caught her with a hand around her waist, brought her up against him once more. His fury scorched her aura, forced back the calm that tried to quiet her, overwhelmed her as she tried to stand her ground. “It was _entirely_ your fault!”

Without giving her time to react, he claimed her lips, kissed her roughly, bruising her with the crush of his mouth. The tide of redirected passion became an ache, a pulse, a beacon of light, a spiral of darkness. She trembled in his arms, quaked under his touch, yielded to his desire as he overwhelmed her. Arms pinned between their bodies, her hands pushed against his chest. The battle of wills added fuel to the raging burn, the thirst for conquest whetted as he bore down on her.

He pulled her closer, flush against him, her scent smothered him, driving him mad, mindless, controlling him as he gently raked his claws over her back, against her sides, pushing her shirt up, dragging it off her. Casting it aside as he dragged her back against him, the shock of her flesh against the roughness of his haori wrung a gasp from her as he swallowed her noise.   Her fragrance shifted, deepened, flooded into something else, something that made him want to possess her even as she leaned against him, her tremulous hands pushing aside his haori and undershirt. The electricity as flesh met flesh was almost too much, forcing a predatory sound from him as she whimpered softly.

Dragging his mouth away to dip his head, to explore the revealed skin bathed blue in the light of the night sky, he devoured her without mercy, without relenting. As though something else drove him, the need to claim her became an obsession. Desire ran over, gushed hot, flowing from her and drawing him closer. Clawed fingers closed over the heat of her flesh, an insistent tug as he forced his hips against hers. He unleashed a growl, entirely primitive, wholly instinctive, echoing through the trees, reflecting off the water. He brought his mouth back to hers, all traces of tenderness gone.   The kiss he gave her was the kiss of mating, the rampant lust that controlled his mind precluded his understanding. He wanted her, all of her, and he could tell from her scent that she wanted him, too.

Pure and untainted, wild and thick, emotion stretched like a wire, as his control snapped with the flood of need. Claws tearing delicate fabric, the sound of her clothes tearing away was enough to shock her. With a cry, a gasp, a breathy groan, Kagome tensed against him, her entire body suddenly pulling away, retreating. She turned her head to the side, breath harsh, spiked. “In—InuYasha . . . I’m scared,” she whispered.

Her words cut at him, tore at an already ragged soul. He let go of her and turned away as Kagome sank to her knees, arms crossed over her breasts as she struggled to breathe.

InuYasha turned his face to the sky, to the light of the nearly full moon. A savage understanding came to him, a miserable realization that he wanted to ignore. ‘ _You’re the very thing you protect her from_ ,’ he mind screamed. ‘ _She’ll hate you . . . what were you thinking?_ ’

“Come on,” he mumbled gruffly, unable to look her in the eye as he started away. He heard her follow. It was enough. With every step he took, a little bit of his heart fell away.

Kagome remained silent as she put her things away, as she crawled into the safety of her blankets. He sat with his back to her, alone with his thoughts with her within reach. Somehow she felt so far away, and her words echoed in his head painfully. ‘ _I’m scared_ . . . .’

“InuYasha?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t dare.

She sighed softly. He heard her sit up. “When I said I was scared, I didn’t mean of you.”

That got his attention. He turned to stare over his shoulder, eyes intent, focusing on her as she stared at her hands that clutched her blanket tight. “Kagome . . . .”

She shook her head, shoulders rising and falling as she struggled to find the words to make him understand. “I . . . I’m not scared of you,” she said again. “I’m scared of the things I feel.”

He went to her, pulled her into his arms, settled her against his heart. Her pulse fluttered wildly, faster and stronger as he tried to soothe her. Pressing his lips to her forehead he sang the song to her. In whispers and breaths of the gentle night, she fell asleep in his embrace.

Laying her down in the security of her blankets, InuYasha tried to ignore the sudden emptiness of his arms. The savage jolt that rocked through him drew a whine from his soul. Stretching out beside her, he pulled her back against him, one arm wrapped around her. She sighed and relaxed in her sleep. _‘I’m scared of the things I feel . . . ._ ’

He winced as his arm tightened around her. He’d nearly lost control of himself . . . if she hadn’t stopped him when she did, he would have taken her, and as much as he knew she wanted that too, there were some things that were worth waiting for. She was one of those things, and she deserved better than a quick mating with a mindless animal. She deserved tenderness and patience; she deserved to feel completely loved. His feelings had been so overpowering, so strong, so fierce that he’d frightened himself.

He knew exactly what she meant.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome awoke to the serenade of birds. Speaking to her with their happy songs, she closed her eyes and tried to savor the feel of InuYasha’s arms around her.   Unsure if he was awake or not, she lay perfectly still. The pleasant warmth of him in the chill of the morning air was a beautiful feeling.

“Gonna lay there all morning, Kagome?”

She smiled and turned her face, burying it against his arm. “I was trying to,” she admitted.

“Keh. Lazy wench.”

“Nothing lazy about it,” she argued. “I like waking up with you.”

He hesitated before answering. “I wasn’t sleeping.”

She shrugged and sighed. “You don’t have a romantic bone in your body, do you?”

“Nope,” he agreed lightly as he got up and stretched. “Now hurry up. If someone had been awake sooner, we could have been at Sesshoumaru’s by now.”

Kagome scampered out of her sleeping bag and made quick work of rolling it up. “Oh, you can’t blame that on me. If you’d wanted to leave earlier, you could have woken me up sooner.”

“Keh! Not with your snoring . . . .”

“I don’t snore!” she gasped.

He laughed at her outrage. “No, you don’t. Can’t take a joke, wench?”

“That wasn’t funny,” she remarked. “That was just plain mean . . . .”

“You gonna pout all day?”

She snapped her mouth closed. “I don’t pout.”

“Keh.”

Digging out a granola bar, Kagome offered InuYasha a bite. He made a face and grabbed her bag. “Come on, wench. The faster we get done, the faster we can go back.”

The two set out, immersed in their teasing banter. Whatever it was that had preoccupied InuYasha seemed to be gone, or at least pushed aside in his mind. Back to the arrogant and surly hanyou she knew best, Kagome didn’t question what had brought about the change in his demeanor even though she had to admit that she was glad for whatever had sparked it.

“Do you think we’ve seen the last of Katosan?”

InuYasha snorted. “Hell, no. He’ll be back, bastard that he is.”

“It’s odd, isn’t it? I mean, your mother seemed to think that he was trustworthy.”

“Mother trusted too easily.”

Kagome fell silent as Katosan’s words came back to her. ‘ _I did not cause her death . . . nor did I seek to prevent it . . . . Could I have? Yes. Should I have? Possibly. Would it change the warning I give you now? Not at all_.’

InuYasha sensed her change in mood and stopped to wait for her. “Don’t worry, Kagome. If he comes anywhere near you again, I’ll cut him down before he can blink.”

He swung her up into his arms when they reached a small ravine. She held onto him as he leaped over it, and even after he’d landed, she didn’t seem to want to be put down. He rolled his eyes but grinned just a little as he kept walking. “You’re not seriously going to make me carry you all day, are you? What if we get attacked? How am I supposed to fight when I can’t reach my sword?”

“I can get it for you,” she remarked with a giggle. She reached beneath herself, feeling around for the sword, and she brushed against his thighs. He stopped and smothered a groan.

“Sneaky wench,” he mumbled, setting her back on her feet as her cheeks blossomed in a deep flush. “You’re walking.”

“Sorry,” she muttered, her head bent down as she stared at the dim trail. If she had managed to look at him, she would have seen that he was as red in the face as she was.

Suddenly, he stopped. “Kagome,” he said, drawing her attention with the silent warning in his tone. She stopped, too, as he surveyed the forest.

“Youkai,” she whispered. He didn’t answer.

“I know you’re there,” InuYasha called warily, hand resting on Tetsusaiga as he waited for the intruder to show himself.

“You must be InuYasha . . . am I right?”

He blinked in surprise as the lynx youkai sauntered toward them. When she stood still, she blended in with the foliage well enough. He pulled Kagome back, hiding her from the lynx’s casual assessment. “So?”

The lynx smiled, her tongue flicking out to lick her red lips as she widened her gaze as though proclaiming her innocence. “What a darling you are! No wonder Sesshoumaru sees you as competition.”

“Keh. What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”

“Oh, my, my . . . short tempered, aren’t we? Want to play, puppy?”

Kagome made a noise almost like a growl. InuYasha shot her a look meant to silence her. The miko growled a little louder.

“And is this your miko? The one I’ve heard tell of? Such a sweet little thing, isn’t she? Too bad she’s just a mortal . . . No fun, is it? She’ll grow old and die, and you, InuYasha, shall be all . . . alone.” As she spoke, the youkai reached over and trailed her claws along InuYasha’s jaw. He jerked away from her and bared his fangs in a vicious snarl meant as a warning. The lynx ignored it.

“Leave her out of this. What the fuck do you want?”

Ayamakita chuckled, shaking her head in mock confusion. “Two brothers: one so cold he might as well be ice, and the other one a passionate little puppy . . . why don’t you come home with me, puppy? I could teach you a thing or two that your miko might even enjoy later . . . ?”

Kagome grabbed InuYasha’s arm. He winced inwardly as her misguided miko energy burned his arm under the haori. Drawing Tetsusaiga, he leveled it at the lynx and growled. “I’ll ask you again. Who are you and what do you want?”

The lynx youkai pouted, hands on hips as she shifted her weight to her right leg. “I am Ayamakita, and I simply wished to meet the other Brother of the Fang . . . . I’m not here to challenge you . . . why don’t you put that away? It’s a bit distracting, having such a large sword pointed at me . . . .”

InuYasha tightened his grip on the sword. “All right, you’ve met me. What do you really want?”

“I told you . . . I wanted to meet the hanyou that defeated Naraku . . . and the miko they say will be his mate.”

“Stay away from Kagome.”

“I’ve no intention of harming your miko, young one . . . you’re the one who interests me.”

“Stop staring at him like that,” Kagome demanded, standing on tip toe to look over InuYasha’s shoulder.

He reached back and tweaked her nose.

Ayamakita laughed. “Young love is such a beautiful thing . . . I must be going now . . . I’ll see you again, InuYasha . . . I look forward to it.” Before he could stop her, she sidestepped Tetsusaiga and licked his cheek. With a low growl, he wiped it off on his shoulder as the lynx youkai disappeared into the forest. He dropped Tetsusaiga back into the scabbard as he turned to see what had gotten into Kagome.

She glared at him, arms crossed over her chest, a mulish set to her expression. “I didn’t do anything,” he remarked, not trusting that look at all as he stepped back in retreat.

“You tweaked me,” she accused.

“I told you to keep quiet,” he countered but backpedaled again.

“Did you like her?” Kagome demanded quietly.

“What? Fuck, no!”

“She _licked_ you!”

“I didn’t _ask_ her to! I didn’t even _want_ her to!”

“You didn’t _stop_ her!”

“How could I stop her? I didn’t know she was going to—”

Kagome stomped off. InuYasha stared after her with open-mouthed confusion. ‘ _What_ _the . . . Where’d that come from? Why’s she acting so fucking weird?_ _I’m the one who got licked, damn it!_ ’ He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand for good measure.

With a marked frown, he followed her, rubbing his arm where Kagome had accidentally burned him.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Mokomoko-sama  
> _ ** _The FLUFF ..._
> 
>  
> 
>  ** _Note about Blue Tetsusaiga  
> _** _I believe it has retained its blue color, even when Kagome wasn’t there. Wonder what that means_ ...


	58. InuYasha's Wish

“It’s none of your business.”

InuYasha flexed his claws as he contemplated whether or not it would be worth the effort to rip into his demented half-brother. “The hell it ain’t.”

Sesshoumaru glared at InuYasha with undisguised loathing. “Remember your place, half-breed. You dare to demand answers from me?”

InuYasha didn’t back down. “Yes, I do. _Your_ fucking uncle came after Kagome, and he knew I was human. Now you tell me how he knew that, and you tell me where the hell I can find him.”

“Norimitsu is no one to me,” Sesshoumaru articulated coldly. “The brother of my mother means nothing.”

“Well, great, then you won’t care if I cut the bastard down. Just tell me where to find him.”

Staring over the horizon at the open forest below the cliff and the sea beyond, Sesshoumaru shook his head slightly and shifted his gaze to the side. “And you think that a pathetic hanyou can defeat a youkai of Norimitsu’s ilk?”

“Hide and watch.”

Sesshoumaru regarded the landscape as the gentle afternoon breeze ruffled his hair. “Why do you seek him? If he wishes to kill you, he will seek you out again.”

InuYasha shrugged. “What does it matter to you?”

“It matters not to me, InuYasha. Whether you live or whether you die, This Sesshoumaru is finished trifling with the petty likes of you.”

“Long speech for you, bastard. If you didn’t know where to find Norimitsu, you should have just said so.” InuYasha turned to go.

Sesshoumaru’s voice stopped him. “He is the tai-youkai of the Southern Realm. Now tell me what it is you seek.”

InuYasha nodded slowly, hiding his amazement that Sesshoumaru had actually told him anything. “He’s got Mother’s diary.”

Sesshoumaru stared at him a few moments. It seemed as though the stoic youkai was almost surprised. “Do you think so?”

“I know so.”

“What makes you so certain?”

InuYasha snorted and shrugged, as if he thought the entire situation were easy to understand. “He knows too much. Anyway, since you apparently don’t know where to find him, then I’m wasting my time.” InuYasha started away then suddenly turned back with a pronounced glower. “Oh, yeah . . . I met a friend of yours. Ayama—something . . . She seemed to know you, anyway. What’s with her?”

To InuYasha’s unabashed amazement, Sesshoumaru turned away without answering though not before InuYasha had seen the trace of surprise and irritation on his features. “Mind your own business, baka.”

“Did I hit a nerve?” InuYasha couldn’t resist asking.

Sesshoumaru dismissed him with a toss of his head.

InuYasha grinned and turned away again, sniffing the air to find Kagome.

Rin had dragged Kagome off the second she had seen her. He followed Kagome’s scent around the castle. In the carefully secluded gardens, he heard whispering female voices as Kagome and Rin chatted. Kagome had worried a few times, that Rin wouldn’t be taught the things she should know. So far as InuYasha could tell, the human girl was fine under Sesshoumaru’s protection. Of course, he had to admit that he knew next to nothing about children in general, and human girls, he thought with a grimace, were completely beyond his comprehension.

Since the fiasco with the lynx youkai, Kagome had said a grand total of four words to him. Apparently she really did think that he had somehow encouraged Ayamakita, even though he didn’t do anything of the sort.

‘ _Keh! You’d think I_ asked _her to lick me! You’d think I_ wanted _her to lick me . . . as if! Damn it . ._ . .’ He wiped his cheek on his sleeve again as he closed in on the sound of Kagome’s voice.

He scowled, rubbing his arm where Kagome had burned him.   It wasn’t severe, at least he didn’t think so, but it did hurt in the same way that a skinned knee hurt when you bent it. He hadn’t told her about that. Maybe he ought to. Then again, he thought with a snort, she’d find a way to blame him for that, too . . . .

“Come on, wench!” he called as he stepped into the rows of hedges. “We’re leaving.”

“Bye, Rin!” Kagome called over her shoulder. She ambled out from under the shade of the cherry trees. InuYasha turned and started away without waiting to see if she was following or not.

The evening shadows were falling, the elongating darkness of the majestic trees silently crept over the land. With the evening came a mellow breeze. It ruffled Kagome’s hair, blew her fragrance right to him. Engulfed as he was in the sweetness of her, he couldn’t help the bemused smile as she sighed in a contented way, lifting her face into the wind as the air kissed her flesh, caressed her skin, culminated in a fragrance so intoxicating it nearly brought the hanyou to his knees.

With a stifled whine and drooping ears, InuYasha caught Kagome and dropped her on his back before lunging forward, intent on putting as much distance between himself and his brother as he could before stopping for the night. At least, that was the reason he had formed, in case Kagome wanted to know. The real reason was because he knew that Kagome couldn’t stay mad at him when they traveled this way. Whether she simply enjoyed their closeness at the time or because of the invigorating sense of freedom that she got as he ran with her, jumped with her, he wasn’t sure. It would be enough if she just stopped being upset with him.

“Did you find out anything?” Kagome finally asked.

“Not really. Getting information out of him is like pulling teeth. He did mention that Norimitsu is Lord of the Southern Realm, whatever that means.”

“Did you expect to get anything out of him?”

InuYasha sighed. Honestly he wasn’t sure what he had hoped. He’d sort of hoped that his baka brother would let something slip. He should have known better. “Keh! Whose side are you on, wench?”

“Yours, of course!” she answered as she snuggled closer.

“You about ready to stop for the night?” he asked, suddenly needing to distance himself from the absolute and welcome warmth of her body.

She shrugged. “Whenever you are.”

He kept going until he found a nice clearing near a small lake. ‘ _I don’t care how much of a fuss she puts up, she is absolutely_ not _taking a bath tonight_.’

As Kagome slid off his back, her hand brushed against the burn she’d left on him earlier. He hissed before he could stop himself. Kagome jerked her hand back. “InuYasha? What’s wrong?” she asked as she came around to stand in front of him.

“Keh. Nothing,” he lied as he snatched up some kindling wood.

“When did you get hurt?” she pressed.

“I didn’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“Keh.”

“Let me see.”

“I’m fine.”

“InuYasha!”

“No!”

She stood in his way, arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. “Let me see,” she demanded, reaching up to pull his shirt open. He held it closed. She slapped his hands back. Staring at her with his mouth agape, InuYasha was shocked enough to stop fighting. “Did you—you didn’t—you couldn’t— _did_ you _slap_ my hands?”

“I wouldn’t have had to if you’d let me look. Now let me see.” She gasped when she pulled his sleeve down to reveal the deep crimson burn on his arm. “How did this happen?” she asked quietly as she dug into her bag for the first aid kit. She gestured at a fallen log, indicating that he should sit.

InuYasha rolled his eyes but did as she ordered. “You burned me when that lynx youkai was talking to us.”

Kagome’s eyes shot up to lock with his. She dropped the first aid kit as he face paled. “ _I_ did that? Why didn’t you tell me?”

He shrugged, still ruffled about having his hands slapped away like he was a pup. “You weren’t exactly being open-minded at the time,” he grumbled.

“Still—”

“It don’t hurt. Just a little raw, is all,” he assured her.

Her expression said that she didn’t believe him. Finally she picked up the first aid kit and set about cleaning the burn. The cream she applied helped a lot. Cooling the burn instantly, she took extra care in bandaging the spot even though he didn’t really need it. She hopped up and put away the kit as he repaired his clothes. He watched with mild bemusement as she finished gathering wood and started a little fire before dumping water into the pot and pulling out two cups of ramen. “Aren’t you the one always grumbling about ‘real food’?”

Kagome shrugged. “I’m fine. One night of ramen won’t hurt you.”

‘ _She feels bad,_ ’ he realized. ‘Really _bad . ._ . .’ It was an interesting concept. Normally he was the one who felt horrible for saying or doing something that hurt or upset her. That she was the one feeling guilty . . . InuYasha made a face. He didn’t like it, not at all . . . .

He didn’t say anything else until after she gave him a cup of ramen and sat down next to him. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, staring into her cup as her cheeks pinked.

“Keh. I told you, I’m fine,” he told her. “Don’t worry about it.”

She shook her head. “What can I do to make up for it?”

He blinked in surprise. “You don’t need to.”

She shrugged and sighed. “I want to.”

“Like what?” he couldn’t resist asking.

“I could rub your ears?”

“Keh. That’s for you.”

Kagome thought it over a few minutes then shook her head. “Why don’t you tell me what you want?”

InuYasha felt his chest constrict. A thousand thoughts, a million images raced through his mind at her simple question. ‘ _I want . . . you, Kagome, forever_.’

‘ _Why don’t you tell me what you want?_ ’

It was such a simple question, and he knew that she was talking about doing something nice for him, not asking him to tell her what he really, really wanted. ‘ _The wishing stone . . . my wish . . . Kagome . . . . Did she somehow know?_ ’  Still . . . . ‘ _Now’s your chance! Tell her what you really want . . . ._ ’

Kagome smiled a little shyly and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Give it some thought, and let me know?”

All he could do was blink and swallow . . . hard.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Watch carefully, ladies and gentleman! Before your very eyes, I’ll make this rock disappear!”

Sango leaned toward Miroku to whisper in his ear. “Do you think he’s figured it out yet?”

“Don’t make fun of the Great Shippouni!” Shippou remarked haughtily, shooting Sango a sidelong glower.

Sango hid her smile. “Apologies, Great Shippouni.”

“Sango! Disparaging the little one! I’m shocked,” Miroku whispered back.

Sango nudged him with her elbow as Shippou waved the ‘magic wand’.

Kaede laughed as Shippou moved his hand to drop the rock down his sleeve. All three of them saw the rock. None of them mentioned it.

Shippou preformed another few tricks, much to the amusement of his audience. By the time he was finished, he was very proud of himself and very tired. Curling up with Kirara on the mat near the fire, the kitsune was asleep within minutes.

Miroku tugged on Sango’s hand. “Come for a walk with me, Sango?”

Kaede cleared her throat before Sango could answer. “We must finish discussing the ceremony, Sango . . . and there will be no ‘walks’ till after ye are wed, Miroku . . . .”

“Kaede!” Miroku intoned, covering his heart with his hand as though the old miko’s words had wounded him. “I would never—”

“Kaede stubbornly shook her head. “I am not blind, Miroku. I see how ye watch young Sango . . . There will be no ‘walks’ until after ye are wed.”

Sango blushed but smiled and shrugged.

“I am so misunderstood,” Miroku complained.

“Kaede would be the same with InuYasha and Kagome, if they were here. Wouldn’t you, Kaede?” Sango said, hoping to make Miroku feel better.

For some reason, Miroku highly doubted that. Kaede sighed. “Those two are too timid to get into much mischief the way ye would, Miroku.”

Miroku nearly choked on his indignant sputtering. Sango’s gentle laughter kept him silent. ‘ _InuYasha’s too timid to get into mischief, is he? Interesting . ._ _. . Kaede wouldn’t think that if she had seen half of what Sango and I have_ . . . .’

He sighed and wondered if there was any way to hurry the wedding along . . . .

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome stared at the configuration with a thoughtful frown before slowly picking one of her checkers and carefully placing it. “There,” she said but didn’t take her finger off of it while she decided if she wanted to leave it there.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” InuYasha teased, stretched out on his side, one knee propped up with his arm draped over it. His other hand supported his head, and he yawned in a completely exaggerated fashion as he waited impatiently for Kagome to finish her move.

“Shh!” she breathed, lifting her finger to her lips to shush him.

He reached over and flicked her nose. “Keh! You _can’t_ shush me!”

She reached over and flicked him in return. “And you _can’t_ heckle me while I’m trying to make up my mind.”

“You didn’t tell me it was going to take you hours to make up your mind every turn,” he grumbled.

With a heavy sigh, she lifted her finger off her game piece. He promptly took his nearest piece and effectively ended the game by taking all three of her remaining checkers out of commission.

“All right, that’s enough of that,” she said dourly as she put the wooden checkers back in the small plastic pouch and folded up the game board. “You’re no fun. Don’t you ever lose?”

He snorted. “Keh! You ought to know by now, wench, I don’t lose anything. In fact, I—” he trailed off with a low growl as she dug the damned calculus book out of her bag. “Oi! What do you think you’re doing?”

She shook her head. “I’ve got to study! I’ve got midterm exams coming up, and—”

He frowned, which she would have seen if she could have dragged her face out of that book. Minutes passed as she scribbled problems and worked them in her notebook. InuYasha raked his claws over the ground as he glared at the book, unaware of the low growl that was coming from his own throat.

 _‘I hate that book, I hate that book, I fucking hate that damn book!_ ’ he fumed as she continued to ignore him. “I thought of what I want,” he suddenly blurted, face reddening as she glanced up at him.

“What you want? Oh, okay.” Kagome sat up and closed the book to offer him her full attention.

“I want that fucking book,” he growled, leaning forward and snatching her calculus book.

Her mouth dropped open. “InuYasha? You can’t have my textbook!”

“You said _anything_ , and I want this.”

“But—”

“Keh! You can’t go back on your word!”

“What do you want it for?”

“That’s easy! I want it so _you_ can’t study it.”

Kagome stared in drop-mouthed amazement as InuYasha stalked over to the base of an old magnolia tree and proceeded to dig a hole, obviously not trusting her at all since he had the book cinched in his jaws. When he was satisfied with the depth of the hole, he dropped the book with a heavy thump and proceeded to bury it.

“InuYasha! I have to have that book!” she gasped.

“Now you’re forgiven,” he remarked as he started back toward her. His eyes suddenly narrowed as he stared at her, and, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, ‘sneaky wench,’ he stomped right back and sat on the soft ground.

She crossed to him and sat on her knees, hands in her lap, the absolute personification of patience as she smiled sweetly, tilting her head to the side. “InuYasha, now I know you realize that I _need_ that book.”

“Keh.”

The sweet tone grew even more syrupy. “And I know you really want to be nice and give the book back.”

“Keh.”

Syrup dissolved in honey, and she added the ‘peeking through her lashes’ look for good measure. “And I’ll promise that I’ll put the book away from now on, whenever you say, if you’ll just dig it up and give it back to me.”

InuYasha forced his gaze away, steeling himself against the effects of said-look. “K-K-Keh-h-h-h.”

“I’ll let you beat me at checkers?”

“I already do.”

“I won’t complain when you tweak my nose.”

“That’s a lie.”

She sighed and then narrowed her gaze on him, apparently deciding that if sweetness didn’t work, she needed to try another tactic. “I won’t mention the lynx that had her _paws_ all over you _and_ licked you.”

InuYasha snorted and sputtered at her suddenly angry tone. “I didn’t _like_ that! You make it sound like I wanted her to do that! Besides, it was only _one_ finger, not her whole paw, so they definitely weren’t her ‘paw- _zuh’_!”

Kagome made a sound suspiciously close to his infamous ‘Keh!’ She shot him a dour look and said mildly, “Oh, really? You were paying that much attention to her ‘paw- _zuh_ ’? And tell me why you’re always allowed get so mad whenever Kouga came around, but I’m not allowed to get irritated over a youkai who can’t keep her ‘paw _-zuh’_ off of you! At least _he_ never licked _me_!”

“The difference,” he snarled, leaning forward with a fierce light in his eyes, “is that _I_ never acted like I _liked_ her! You _always_ had to fawn all over Kouga! Keh!”

“You take that back!”

“Keh!”

“I mean it, InuYasha, you take that back or else!”

“Or else _what_?”

“Or else . . . _Ohh_!”

Since she couldn’t think of anything quite good enough to ‘or else’ him with, Kagome shot to her feet and stalked over to her bedroll.

“Oi! We’re not done talking!” InuYasha yelled.

“We’re not talking! You’re yelling!”

“So are you!”

“You yelled first!”

“You’re yelling louder!”

“Baka!”

“You’d better quit yelling at me because—”

Kagome rolled over, leaning up on her elbows. “Because what?”

“ _Because mates don’t yell at each other, damn it!_ ” As though the words he’d bellowed had taken all of his irritation to say, InuYasha shook his head, stared the other way, drawing a deep breath before he continued. “Are you going to yell at me after we . . . If we . . . ?”

Kagome felt as though her heart had stopped. She couldn’t remember that she had to breathe, either, until dizziness nearly overcame her. “InuYasha? Are you . . . asking . . . me?”

He lifted his hand in an empty gesture and sighed, feeling the burn of complete embarrassment wash over him in relentless waves. “It wasn’t how I wanted to ask, but—”

She gulped, swallowing a suspicious lump that rose to choke her. “That’s forever, right?” she asked quietly.

He flinched and shook his head, his ears drooping as his eyes took on a sad, guarded, confused glow. “Forget I said anything . . . .”

How she managed to launch herself out of her blankets and straight into his arms was a mystery to him but suddenly she was there, her lips on his, her body wrapping around him as she laughed and cried at the same time.

“Ka—go—me,” he mumbled between her kisses, before he lost the will to say it. With every kiss, every breath, every sigh and every sob, his resistance weakened, but claiming her now was something that he could not do . . . . “We—can’t—”

“Can’t what?” she muttered back as she kissed his cheek, his jaw. He whined softly, wishing that he could let himself be lost in her. Forcing his eyes open, he stared at the full moon. It mocked him, laughed at him, and it gave him the strength to refrain from the lure of her, of what he knew she would give him.

With a deep breath, he gently pushed her away. A ragged breath, a shaking hand, a trembling in his limbs that he couldn’t control as he cleared his throat to say, “We _can’t_. Tonight is the full moon . . . . You’d better go over there.”

She frowned and shook her head as she struggled to understand. “Well,” she said slowly, “I can understand that children wouldn’t be great just yet. I’m not really ready for them, either, right now, but maybe if I just sat with you and—”

“Kagome, please,” he rasped out, his whisper harsh, grating. “ _Just go to bed_.”

Her confusion lingered, and she opened her mouth to reason with him. “Not even—?”

‘ _Fuck, no!_ ’ He shook his head quickly though it took another few seconds until he trusted himself enough to spare a glance at her. Her face was flushed, mouth a darker pink, and she breathed hard, lips parted, trembling precariously, as though she was near tears. He quickly looked away again. “There are still too many things that I have to figure out,” he said slowly, pleading with her to understand. “Too many things that don’t make sense, and if you sit here with me, I’ll smell you, and if I smell you, I’ll want to . . . please . . . just go to bed, all right?”

She sighed and leaned forward, brushing a kiss across his cheek before he heard her stand up to return to her bedroll.   Only after she was safely ensconced in the blankets did he heave a sigh of his own. The desire to claim her was fierce, unrelenting. The ache in his body was nearly enough to kill him. As desperately as he wanted to seek the calm of the cold lake water, he didn’t dare leave her alone, didn’t dare leave her unprotected. Digging his claws into his palms until he smelled the metallic scent of his own blood, he closed his eyes with a measure of relief. ‘ _Baka, what will you do? Maim yourself all night just so you can’t smell Kagome?_ ’

He growled low as her fragrance came at him once more, forcing away the more familiar scent of his blood.

‘ _Keh . . . it’s gonna be a long fucking night_ ,’ he thought with a pained grimace.

They were both still awake when the sun rose.

 

 

 

 

 


	59. Negotiations

“Thank you for giving back my calculus book, and for the nice fang punctures in the cover.”

InuYasha shot Kagome a sidelong glance. Looking distinctly exhausted and yet no less radiant, it amazed him that she could smile at him, as she had all morning, when he knew she was as tired as he was. He snorted. “Keh.”

“I didn’t think you would give it back,” she went on with a shrug. “Does that mean I can’t study it when you’re around?”

He recognized her teasing tone and schooled his features. “Don’t make the deal if you can’t stand the terms.”

She sighed, apparently giving up on the subject for the moment. “Where are we going now?”

“Thought you had some _exams_ ,” he countered, unable to keep the bit of a snarl out of his tone.

“I meant after that.”

“I’m going after Norimitsu, what else?”

She stopped abruptly and stared at him. “What do you mean, you are? I’m coming with you.”

“Not this time.”

“Yes, this time. _Every_ time. That’s why I did all that training, and—”

“And you’re not finished with that training. No.”

“InuYasha—”

“You can’t argue with your mate, wench!”

Her eyebrows shot up just before her gaze narrowed dangerously. In times past, that look was normally accompanied by a loudly uttered ‘it’. That the command no longer worked didn’t do much to make InuYasha any less cautious of the look. “We aren’t mates yet, InuYasha, and if that’s how it’s going to be, then we really need to discuss a few things first.”

“Like . . . what?”

“Like, in my time, mates—married mates—listen to each other and make decisions together. That’s how it is supposed to be. You can’t just _tell_ me to stay behind!”

“Yes, I can!”

“No, you can’t . . . I’m going, and that’s final!”

“But you said—I thought—oi! That’s not discussing anything!”

She wrinkled her nose. “You ended negotiations when you thought I’d just sit back and watch you leave.”

“Can’t you be fucking reasonable?” he growled.

“I’m being reasonable.”

“Keh!”

A contemplative expression crossed her features. For some reason, it worried InuYasha even more. “In that case, then I’ll stay home . . . and hope that Katosan doesn’t show up at the shrine . . . Or I could go visit your brother . . . Leikizu and Nibori are very nice company, and—”

“Damn, you play dirty, don’t you, sneaky wench?”

She grinned and suddenly hugged him. “Nothing dirty about it. You know I’m safer with you, anyway.”

He looked like he wanted to argue that. “You think so?”

“Yes.”

“Kagome . . . .”

She let go and fell in step beside him again. InuYasha resisted the urge to pull her back. “So what, exactly, does it mean, to become mates?”

InuYasha stopped short and blinked at her question. “Well, it just means that.”

She shrugged. “There’s no marking or anything?” Judging from the look on her face, she was remembering the conversations with Kouga about that sort of thing. Reluctant was a good word for her expression. What was the other one? The more modern one she used from time to time? Oh yes, ‘grossed out’.

He sighed, deciding that the next time he ran into that mangy wolf, he was going to do some Tetsusaiga shoving . . . . “No marking, other than you’d sort of smell like me.” He made a face, remembering Shippou’s words. “Well, more like me than you do now . . . does that bother you?”

She smiled in obvious relief. “I like how you smell,” she assured him. “No . . . _peeing_ , right?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “ _Fuck_ . . . . No. Damn wolf was being a bastard, that’s all.”

“I thought as much,” she remarked. “I just wanted to make sure . . . .”

‘ _Definite Tetsusaiga shoving . . ._ ’ he thought as he started walking again.

Kagome fell silent for awhile. InuYasha sneaked a peek at her and was dumbfounded to see complete sadness in her eyes, tears welling up despite her effort to keep them back. Her chin trembled with her effort not to cry, and she struggled to breathe without making a sound. “What—why are you crying?”

She shook her head, wrapping her arms over her stomach as she forced a smile. He winced at the false brightness, hating the idea that there was something she obviously didn’t want to tell him. “It’s nothing,” she lied with a shaky laugh. “I’m just being a little stupid, is all . . . .”

“ ‘Stupid’, how?”

She turned away, staring off into the trees, into the darkness of the surrounding forest. Her aura seemed to weep, the trees suddenly bending to her, offering their own kind of solace to a heart that was so broken. Hesitantly, InuYasha reached for her, drew her back against his chest, leaned his chin on her head. “Can we do this?” she asked quietly, unable or unwilling to look at him.

“Do what?”

She shook her head miserably, as though giving voice to her worries would make them more real. “Can we be together? They’re right, you know. I’m mortal. I’m human. If I’m lucky, I’ll live for awhile . . . but old to me isn’t old to you, and I . . . I can’t stand the idea of leaving you alone.”

InuYasha tried to push his irritation aside, anger that Kagome would doubt what had taken so much for him to admit. “Keh! Don’t be stupid.”

“But—”

His arms tightened around her. “No! Don’t you get it? It’ll be enough for me.”

She turned, forced him to look at her. Her hands were gentle as she cupped his cheeks, and she stared at him with pleading in her eyes, eyelashes spiked with her unshed tears. “And after I’m gone?”

“Don’t ask me things that I can’t answer.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? Because you can’t answer what I have no right to ask of you.”

“Keh. You have the right to ask,” he grumbled as he looked away. “You think too much, wench.”

She laughed but it was a hollow sound. “How can you say you want to be with me when—?”

“How can you ask me that?”

“You deserve to be with someone who can stay with you, InuYasha.”

Her upset only served to irritate him more. “Don’t do that. Just stop it, all right? You love me, damn it, I know you do.”

She nodded finally, relaxed against him. Either she understood what he hadn’t said or she simply didn’t want to upset him more. Either way, he was relieved when she let it go. “And you love me, too. We’ll worry about that later?”

“Keh.” InuYasha closed his eyes for a moment, held her against him as she struggled not to think about it, not to worry. ‘ _Maybe there’s a way, Kagome . . . there’s gotta be something because . . . I can’t live without you, and one of your lifetimes won’t be nearly long enough_ . . . .’ She dropped her head back against his shoulder as his gaze caught on the Shikon no Tama.

Kaede’s words came back to him, ‘ _It was Kikyou’s belief that the jewel should be used for the betterment of someone, as she had wished to turn InuYasha human. But she wasn’t certain, and I believe in my heart that she was wrong in this_.’

And then Kikyou’s words, too, ‘ _Take care of her, InuYasha . . ._ .’

Who was right?

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“It’s been too long.”

“If I had lived forever without seeing you again, it wouldn’t have been too long, Ayamakita. What do you want?”

The lynx youkai slinked out of the foliage lips turning down in a sulky pout. “Is that the way you ought to greet me when I come with information?”

Amber eyes flicked coolly over the lynx vixen. “Your audacity astounds me. Does Sesshoumaru-sama know that you’re skulking about his territory?”

“Oh, Katosan . . . no need to mention him, is there?” she asked as she stepped behind the youkai, pressing against him, leaning over his shoulder to nip at his ear. “He’s a little cold for my liking, in any case . . . .”

“I grow weary of your intrigues, Aya. What do you want?”

“Taken to imitating your betters? Behaving like Sesshoumaru doesn’t suit you, Katosan. I prefer the passion you used to show.”

He stared at her for a long moment, a slight smile lifting the corners of his lips as he sniffed lightly. “You’ve been playing with InuYasha-sama, haven’t you? I smell him on you. What is your game?”

Ayamakita sauntered over to a fallen log and sat down with a dramatic sigh. “A sweet little nibble, isn’t he? Too bad he had his human bitch with him. I don’t think she cared for me at all . . . .”

“I don’t imagine she would. What did you do?”

“Nothing _bad_ . . . I just gave him a little lick, that’s all.”

Katosan’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “Then I should congratulate you for still being able to breathe.”

“InuYasha is too much of a puppy. You think he would harm me?”

Katosan chuckled. “I didn’t think the harm would come from him, no . . . but the miko has the power to purify youkai.”

It was Ayamakita’s turn to lift her eyebrows. “You sound as if you’re familiar with her powers, first hand.”

“More familiar than I cared to be,” he allowed. “I’d be careful, if I were you. Get too close to her pet, and she might purify you, too.”

“Thanks for the warning.” The lynx stood and ambled around Katosan, idly rubbing against him, purring as she wrapped her arms around his neck, as she gazed at him through her jewel-like eyes. “Tell me, Katosan . . .” she traced his lips with her claws, “do you ever get lonely?”

“Not for you, Aya. Never . . . for . . . you.” Deliberately, he unhooked her arms and stepped back. “Now if there is something you wished to discuss with me, then do so.   Otherwise be gone from these lands. We’ve no need for your presence here.”

“You inu-youkai aren’t very playful, are you? Must be terribly boring . . . Norimitsu summoned me. It seems he wants my aide.”

“Norimitsu? Sinking to new lows, isn’t he? Willingly associating himself with the likes of you? Or does he simply not realize that you will never be Sesshoumaru-sama’s mate?”

Ayamakita wasn’t amused. Those emerald eyes narrowed dangerously, and she hissed in a light, sing-song way. “Take care, Katosan. That was my choice, if you’ll recall.”

“Believe what you will, Aya. Sesshoumaru wouldn’t have taken you as his mate, not once he figured out the games you played.”

“Think what you will. You always did think badly of me, didn’t you?”

“If it fits . . . .”

She sighed again, taking a few moments to inspect her razor sharp claws. “So you’re not interested in Norimitsu’s plans? Some keeper for the House of the Inu no Taisho you are . . . .”

“Norimitsu, Ayamakita.”

“What’s in it for me? I mean, if I share this information, then won’t Norimitsu come for me, as well?”

“What is it you want?”

Lowering her chin, Ayamakita gazed up through her eyelashes, her gaze steady, calculating. “That’s simple, Katosan. I want what I’ve always wanted.”

Katosan shook his head slowly.   “Then you’re talking to the wrong person. I cannot give you—”

She shot to her feet, crossed to him in one fluid movement. “You, Katosan . . . I’ve always wanted you.”

He didn’t answer as he stared at the lynx youkai. Wrapping her arms around him, so close he could feel the scrape as their youki collided, she let her lips linger so close to him yet without touching his lips. “So what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

Katosan didn’t reply right away. What she wanted was dangerous, wicked . . . seductive. “Tell me what you know, and I’ll consider your offer.”

Ayamakita smiled as his youki caressed hers.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Why don’t you kick your leg when I scratch your ears?”

“Hmm?”

Kagome leaned to the side to peek over InuYasha’s shoulder. “You heard me. Why don’t you kick your leg when I scratch your ears? Eri’s dog does . . . .”

“Keh!” he snorted. “I’m not a fucking dog! I’m an inu-youkai-hanyou—”

“Yes, yes, _half_ -dog is still dog—”

“Half- _youkai_ —”

“So why don’t you?”

“Why don’t I what?”

Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes. “Kick your leg when I scratch your ears?”

He gave her the ‘That-Doesn’t-Even-Deserve-An-Answer’ look. “Maybe you’re not scratching in the right place,” he grumbled.

She giggled and leaned back while he snorted again and turned his attention back to Kagome’s diary.

‘ _We came across a weapon-sharpener. Miroku had his Shakuju sharpened, Sango left her weapon, too. InuYasha stubbornly refused to leave Tetsusaiga. I think he enjoys sharpening it himself with his claws just so he can make that hideous noise that I can’t stand. I’m amazed he can, since his ears are so much more sensitive than mine. Anyway, back to today. When we returned, the weapons were done, and they were sharpened to perfection, which, of course, made InuYasha a little more irritated, since he’d been too stubborn to leave Tetsusaiga. When we moved on, we found a really nice hot spring so Sango and I got a wonder bath, and then the guys decided they’d use it too._ ’

InuYasha stopped reading with a frown. On the one hand, he remembered that incident well enough. Jaken, the little toad, had created the hot spring so that he could steal Tetsusaiga, and when InuYasha had tried to get his clothes, he’d ended up falling. There was something intoxicating about the magic spring, and, in the end, Kagome had come running and had seen a little more than he’d planned on showing her . . . .

Therein lay the problem. Did he really want to read her diary? What if she hadn’t liked what she’d seen? What if she made fun of him, or . . . . Or what if she didn’t?

 _‘What are you waiting for? Read it!_ ’

InuYasha made a face, dragging his claws over the dirt as he considered his options. ‘ _What if she didn’t . . . what if she thought . . . keh! Damn it . . . !_ ’

‘ _Don’t be such a coward! Read it!_ ’

Then again, if he started to read it and it didn’t look good, then he could always stop, right? Before he could talk himself out of it, he opened the diary again.

‘ _We were minding our own business when the guys started to holler. Thinking something must have been happening, I ran over. But the guys were trying to get out of the water, stumbling around in a weird sort of way. They seemed almost drunk, and I saw more than I think I probably should have. InuYasha sort of flopped backward, arms out, legs spread, and it was more than I think I was ready to see. I screamed. I really screamed. I think I might have screamed louder than I have the times he’s seen me like that. Ack! I’m blushing now, just remembering! I mean, I knew he had a nice chest since I’ve bandaged that often enough. I knew he had to have nice legs since he runs practically everywhere, and since he doesn’t seem to mind carrying me most of the time. Maybe I’m sort of like a weight for him, so he gets a better work out while he’s running through the forest_.

‘ _It doesn’t make sense. I’ve taken biology and sexual education in school, and there were drawings in the manuals for class, but those sketches didn’t look anything like InuYasha does. I think I might remember that forever. I mean, I had a good idea that he would be powerful, but wow. I almost wish I had Miroku’s daring so I could have stared a little longer. Then again, if I had looked as much as I had wanted to, I’d still be standing there_ . . . .’

InuYasha frowned thoughtfully. He’d forgotten until now, how Kagome had acted weird for a few days afterward, blushing when he looked at her, avoiding contact with him if she could. She’d even gone so far as to give Shippou cups of ramen to hand over. At the time, he had thought that she had been disgusted by what she’d seen that night. ‘ _She wasn’t . . . at all . . . ? She doesn’t think I’m . . . unnatural?_ ’

Suddenly he hopped up, ignoring Kagome’s protests as he stalked off toward the nearby stream. “Where are you going?” she called after him.

“Swimming, wench.”

“Swimming?”

“Keh. We’ve been traveling for days, and I’m filthy. Come on.”

He didn’t look but he had a feeling that her jaw had just dropped. “I can’t—that’s not—I’ll stay here.”

“I can’t protect you from here, wench. Now get your swimming suit-thing and come on.”

“I don’t want to swim,” she mumbled, her face reddening slightly.

“Suit yourself but you’re coming with me. Someone’s gotta watch Tetsusaiga. We’re still on Sesshoumaru’s land. I’d hate for that damn imp to try to steal it again.”

He glanced back in time to see Kagome’s eyes widen as her flush darkened. It did the trick, though, and she got up, grabbed her backpack, and followed.

‘ _Wanted to watch longer, did she? Keh! I’ll give her something to watch . . . ._ ’

“No peekin’!” he reminded her as Kagome sat on a rock beside the edge of the water.

“I don’t peek!” she argued. From where he stood, he could see the heightened color on her cheeks as he dropped his haori and undershirt on Tetsusaiga.

‘ _This might be a really bad idea_ ,’ his mind asserted as he removed the rest of his clothing and waded into the stream. ‘ _This could really backfire on me . . . ._ ’ He winced as the cold water bit into his skin. ‘ _Damn! Test your theory and get the hell out of this water before you freeze, baka!_ ’

Hissing every curse word he knew or could make up, InuYasha dove under the surface of the frigid water and resurfaced moments later.   Standing up in the stream, the water only covered his hips. “Oi, wench!” he hollered, “toss me the soap! I forgot it.”

He distinctly heard her sigh and groan before she dug into the backpack to rummage around for the soap she always carried for him. ‘ _Serves her right. She does this to me all the time, damn it . . . ._ ’

She stood up and swung around to give it to him but stopped short, eyes widening as she stared at him. He put his hands on his hips for good measure and plastered on a glower. “Come on, Kagome! This water’s cold!”

Her face shot up in flames, and she slowly moved toward the water’s edge. He started wading toward her. She gasped and waved her hands. “Stop!”

He stopped. “How am I supposed to get the soap? You gonna bring it to me?”

Turning her head to the side, cheeks fast approaching fire-rat-haori-red, she cleared her throat. “I’ll throw it.”

“Keh. Don’t hit me.” She hurled the bar overhand in what could only be described as a wholly girlish way. It landed two feet in front of her. “Good, wench. Want me to come get it now?”

“ _No!_ ”

He leaned back, arms crossed over his chest. “No?”

“No,” she repeated as she retrieved the soap. “I’ll . . . I’ll bring it to you.” Leaning down to remove her shoes and socks, InuYasha watched in hidden amusement as the fully-dressed girl stepped into the cold water. “You’re going to fr-r-r-reeze if you don’t hu-u-u-urry,” she said through chattering teeth as she came closer. She handed him the bar of soap and turned to wade back to shore.

InuYasha sighed and watched her go. He’d fully intended to grab her when she was within reach—until he saw her shivering. He shook his head and grinned ruefully. He hadn’t missed the change in her scent, either. There was no way she could mask that from him. Idly rubbing the soap against his chest, his smile widened.

She really did want him, just as desperately as he wanted her.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Youki  
> _** _bewitching energy_.


	60. Frustration

Miroku swung the axe with a vengeance. InuYasha sat on the fence watching the monk-turned-exterminator with mild interest. “Tell me again why you’re cutting firewood when the old woman’s got enough to last her a few years now?” InuYasha asked.

“Because Kaede is convinced that I’ll try something with Sango if I spend more than two seconds alone with her before the wedding,” Miroku explained as he heaved the axe again.

“Keh. Got you pegged.”

Miroku shot him a scowl for his efforts.

“Why you using that axe, anyway?”

Miroku paused long enough to wipe perspiration from his forehead. “Because it takes more effort, vents more frustration, and makes me tired enough that I might— _might_ —be able to fall asleep sometime before dawn.”

“Frustration?” InuYasha echoed. “What do you mean, frustration?”

That earned him an even darker look. InuYasha leaned back in surprise. “Rub it in, InuYasha. Just rub it in . . . .”

“Rub what in? What the hell are you talking about?”

Miroku leaned on the axe and stared thoughtfully at the hanyou. “You mean you still haven’t . . . ? You and Kagome haven’t . . . ?”

InuYasha tried to fight his blush as he scowled at the nosey monk. “No, you pervert!”

“Then why aren’t you feeling frustrated, yourself?”

“Frustrated? Fucking—I’ve past _that_ , if you must know. Frustration is minor in comparison. I don’t wanna talk about this,” InuYasha snarled as he hopped off the fence and headed for the forest.

Miroku chased after him. “You can’t say something like that then take off! InuYasha! I thought we were friends!”

“Back off, lecher!” InuYasha snarled, jamming his arms up his sleeves.

“You have to explain!”

“Keh!”

“You want to talk about it, you know you do.”

InuYasha turned his head enough to glare at the monk.

“If you didn’t, you’d be running.”

“I still might.”

Miroku sighed. “All right. I promise I won’t say anything perverted . . . .”

“And I won’t breathe.”

“What is it?”

InuYasha lifted his chin stubbornly but remained silent as the two men stepped into the forest.

“I can’t make you talk, after all . . . Guess I’ll go back and chop more firewood . . . .”

“I can’t be alone with Kagome.”

Miroku blinked in surprise and tilted his head to the side as InuYasha sank down on a rock beside the forest path. “Did Kaede find out about your extended kissing sessions?”

InuYasha glowered at the monk. “Kaede has nothing to do with it, baka. It’s Kagome . . . . She smells nice, and I can’t think straight, and when she looks at me . . . . And now she wants to come with me when I go looking for Norimitsu . . . .” His eyes widened as he stared thoughtfully at Miroku. “You gotta help me, monk.”

Miroku rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Interesting . . . You have no real reason to stop, though . . . Do you?”

“Aren’t you the one who said I _had_ to marry her first?”

“This is true . . . but you’ve also said that taking a mate is the same as marriage for your kind . . . .”

InuYasha narrowed his eyes on the monk. “You just want me to claim Kagome so you feel better about trying to do that to Sango.”

“Bite your tongue!” Miroku gasped. “I’m fully content to wait for our wedding . . . but a few kisses might be nice.”

InuYasha shook his head, ears flattening as he stared at the ground. “It’s not that, anyway. There’re just too many things I have to figure out first. That’s one of the reasons I’m going to look for Norimitsu.”

“Sango and I could accompany you. Then you’d not be alone with Kagome . . . and I might actually manage to sneak a kiss or two . . . .”

Rolling his eyes, InuYasha snorted in disgust. “Spare me, monk.”

Miroku turned thoughtful, and InuYasha nearly groaned when he caught the look. “Exactly how close have you been to . . . that?”

InuYasha shook his head and clamored to his feet. For a moment, Miroku thought that InuYasha was going to take off. The hanyou leaned over, nearly nose to nose with him, and glared as he held up his thumb and index finger without much separating them. "About _this_ close, Miroku. _Really_ close."

Miroku sighed as InuYasha ran off into the forest, heading either to the well or toward Goshinboku. ‘ _That_ ,’ the monk thought as he turned and headed back toward the village, ‘ _was just mean . . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Kagome, why aren’t you with InuYasha?”

Kagome shrugged and smiled at Sango as they walked through the forest. “No reason. I just feel like we’ve not gotten to spend much time together lately, is all.” She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. ‘ _InuYasha doesn’t seem to mind, anyway . . . he’s acted weird ever since I came back . . ._.’ To top that off, her adored Shippou had abandoned her in favor of riding on InuYasha’s shoulder, too. Kagome sighed again.

Sango didn’t miss Kagome’s meaningful look. “You two have gotten much closer, haven’t you? Miroku and I both noticed. I’m happy for you.”

Kagome shrugged. “He acts like he doesn’t want to be alone with me, Sango. He didn’t even kiss me when he came to get me.”

Sango frowned. “Well, he does seem to have quite a bit on his mind lately. Maybe if you talked to him?”

“I tried last night when he went to fetch water for Kaede. Did something happen while I was gone?”

“Not that I know of . . . InuYasha didn’t mention anything.” The exterminator made a face. That wasn’t going to be much comfort since InuYasha rarely said much, anyway, at least about more important things. “Maybe you can talk to him this evening after we stop for the night.”

Kagome finally smiled a real smile. “I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re right. I’ll talk to him later. Now tell me how the wedding plans are coming along?”

Sango rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what to do, Kagome . . . Things keep getting delayed, and even though Miroku doesn’t say anything against it, I can tell he’s miserable. Did you know that Kaede won’t let us go on our nightly patrols without Shippou?”

Kagome blinked in surprise. “Kaede won’t? Why not?”

Sango grinned. “She seems to think that Miroku cannot be trusted not to try anything before the wedding.”

Kagome laughed. “I didn’t realize she knew him so well.” Her humor died down though, as she stared at her friend’s thoughtful expression. “You know, I’ve noticed that Miroku acts a lot different in his exterminator clothes. Have you?”

Sango grimaced. “Yes, I’ve thought as much, myself. Do you know he hasn’t tried to grope me even once in his exterminator outfit?”

“Do you want him to?”

Sango blushed. “Of course not . . . but I do miss my houshi-sama . . . .”

Kagome shrugged. “But he can’t be a monk and marry you, too.”

“I know . . . I do want to marry him . . . I just wish the wedding didn’t keep getting pushed back.”

“Have you talked to Kaede about that?”

Sango shook her head. “One doesn’t argue with Kaede.”

“InuYasha does . . . Miroku might, if you gave him a reason to.”

Sango’s expression turned a little sly. “What do you mean?”

Kagome made a face. “I don’t know . . . remind him why you want to get married, in the first place?”

The female exterminator’s face reddened, and she glanced back to make sure the men weren’t going to overhear them. “Do you mean . . . ?”

“Did you ever ask him to kiss you?”

Sango shook her head quickly.

Kagome shrugged again. “Maybe you should.”

Sango pondered that for a few moments then giggled as a flush spread over her cheeks. “Maybe I should . . . .”

InuYasha frowned as yet another glance came from the females ahead. “What do you think they’re planning?”

Miroku leaned toward InuYasha. “I don’t know . . . it doesn’t bode well, does it?”

“Keh.”

“Those looks . . . worry me.”

“What do you mean, Miroku?” Shippou piped up.

Miroku sighed. “Shippou, I pray you never, ever learn what they mean.”

InuYasha raised his eyebrows and nodded. “You can say that again.”

Shippou shook his head in confusion. “I don’t get it . . . .”

Miroku was struck by sudden inspiration. “Shippou . . . why don’t you go see what the girls are talking about?”

Shippou hopped down and ran off to catch up with Kagome and Sango. InuYasha shook his head. “Keh. Sending the brat to do your dirty work, monk?”

“Not at all . . . I simply think that we should be prepared for whatever was behind those looks.”

InuYasha shot the monk a sidelong glance. “You’re really sneaky . . . for a lecher.”

Miroku held his hand up before his face and bowed slightly. “Thank me later, InuYasha . . . as soon as Shippou finds out what their plan is . . . we can devise a plan of our own to counter it.”

“I still don’t think I like this.”

“Trust me, InuYasha! Have I ever led you astray?”

“Keh! You want I should answer that?”

Miroku laughed as the two men waited for Shippou to report back.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The evening shadows were a comforting presence. InuYasha took Shippou hunting with him, and Miroku started the fire while the girls fetched water from the pond. Staring at the vivid colors painted over the horizon, the monk smiled slightly and leaned against a tree. It was peaceful, out here. He missed traveling, as they had while they searched for the jewel shards. The group of them had traveled all over in search of those missing pieces. It was hard to believe that the Shikon no Tama was complete.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sango said quietly as she stepped up beside the monk.

“Not nearly as beautiful as you are, Sango,” he answered with a gentle smile.

Sango flushed and lowered her gaze, staring at the ground with a smile of her own. “After dinner, could we talk? Just . . . us?” she asked, repeating the words that Kagome had told her would work.

Miroku looked surprised. “Just us?”

Sango nodded, her nervousness apparent in the rough jerking motion of her head. “Please?”

Miroku nodded once then winced and shook his head. Sango stared in disbelief. “I see,” she said slowly, turning to hurry away.

He caught her hand and pulled her back. “I promised InuYasha that I wouldn’t leave him alone with Kagome.”

“Why would you promise him that?”

Miroku made a face. “It doesn’t matter. But I did promise him . . . .”

Sango considered that then shrugged. “Well, Shippou’s here, too . . . .”

“So he is . . . Ah, Sango! As wise as you are beautiful!” He started walking away but turned back to wink at her. “Until later . . . .”

“Miroku!” Shippou hollered as he ran out of the forest and vaulted onto the monk’s shoulder. “I caught dinner! I did it all by myself!”

“Did you?” Miroku remarked as InuYasha stepped out of the forest with a skinned and cleaned rabbit and two birds.

“Didn’t I, InuYasha?”

InuYasha cast the kit a quick glance and nodded once as he headed over to hand Kagome the meat. The kit hopped down and ran over to watch Kagome prepare his first kill as InuYasha came back to stand next to Miroku. “You did it, didn’t you?”

“Keh.”

“Fox fire?”

InuYasha nodded. “Strong enough, but it’s just an illusion. I got ‘em before the illusion faded out.”

Miroku clapped a hand on the hanyou’s shoulder. “You’ll make a fine father one day, InuYasha.”

InuYasha flushed. “Keh. You won’t, unless you want a house full of perverts.”

Miroku sighed. “Sango won’t allow that, I’m sure.”

InuYasha narrowed his gaze on the monk. “Why is she marrying you?”

Miroku grinned. “I don’t know but it may have something to do with why she wants to talk to me after dinner . . . alone.”

Panic registered behind InuYasha’s golden gaze, and he stared at the monk as if Miroku had just announced that the sky was falling. “Now, wait a minute—”

“Calm down, InuYasha. Don’t forget, Shippou is still here.”

InuYasha didn’t look at all pacified. Miroku didn’t have long to wait for the reason. “Shippou’s youkai, monk. He’s already been able to smell me all over Kagome. He won’t care one way or the other what we do in front of him.”

“Maybe Shippou wouldn’t, but you would, and you know Kagome would, too.”

True as that may be, InuYasha still felt as though he’d been set up.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The quiet hillside provided a beautiful view of the surrounding forest in the halcyon moonlight. Miroku leaned back on his elbow, surveying the campfire that peeked through the trees. Content to be alone with Sango, trying to remember that he didn’t have to hurry, he concentrated instead on the unforced solitude of the land, the unbroken tranquility of the spring night.

Sango sat with her knees bent to the side, hands folded together in her lap. Easy to want to take Kagome’s advice, it was much harder to act upon the impulse. Trying to find the courage to ask Miroku wasn’t an easy thing. She had been raised to keep many of her emotions in check, to hide some of the feelings that could be considered as showing weakness. Miroku understood this but it didn’t help her as she struggled to find a way to voice what she felt.

‘ _I’ve missed being with him, talking to him, just sitting in silence and saying nothing . . . . He’s always known when something was on my mind . . . . Why doesn’t he realize now?_ ’

“I’ve missed this,” Miroku remarked, drawing Sango’s attention off her present predicament.

“Missed this? You have?”

He nodded. “Of course. I worship you, Sango . . . a man shouldn’t have to worship from afar.”

She blushed and smiled. “I’m glad we came along this time,” she agreed. “It seems so strange, for all of us to be traveling together again.”

“What seems strange is that Kaede isn’t here trying to separate us,” Miroku remarked with a grimace.

“That, too.” She sighed and gathered her courage to approach the next subject in her mind. “If you object to it, then why don’t you talk to Kaede? I know you respect her, but she has delayed everything a few times . . . .”

Miroku sat up a little straighter. “You . . . wouldn’t mind? If I told her to hurry it along?”

Sango hid her smile. It might be easier than she thought to ask him, after all . . . . “No, I wouldn’t mind.”

“The gods are smiling on me,” Miroku mumbled. Sango flushed. “Blushing becomes you, Sango,” he remarked, his tone teasing, casual as her belly turned over in an enchanting sort of way.

She swallowed hard as she shot Miroku a stealthy glance. Her heart lurched, lodging in her throat, as she intercepted the steady violet gaze he used to completely unsettle her. Mouth dry, lungs constricted, Sango didn’t trust herself to speak. His very presence deluged her, his parted lips inundating her with a cataclysm of longing. She licked her lips once before she could make them move, cleared her throat before she could find her voice. “Miroku . . . would you . . . k-kiss me?”

Eyes darkening to midnight hue, he reached for her with a ragged moan. Tenderness was lost to a flux of heat, an absolute desperation as he laid claim on her. Sango’s heart pumped with relentless fervor, pounding in her ears as white hot flames ignited in her. It had been too long since she’d felt the crush of his mouth, too long since she had succumbed to his kiss. Thought faded into memory, the only truth was the palpable feel, the tactile emotion, the fissure of energy as he pulled her down on his chest. Gone was his cautious coaxing replaced by a fierce need that sank into Sango’s very essence, centering in a part of her that was frightening in its demands. Confused by the warring perceptions, she clung to him, letting him take and plunder as he fueled the burn inside her.

Miroku wrapped her hair around his fists as he cradled her head, tilting her face, kissing her deeper, seeking out every secret she possessed as he barraged her mind without a trace of his normal subtlety. Breaking through the barriers of what she might have considered proper with relentless abandon, tongue darting into her mouth only to retreat before she could capture him. She whimpered in abject frustration only to be soothed by the shocking feel of his hands on her shoulders, her neck, her back. The calm only lasted a moment as liquid heat siphoned through her veins, just under her skin, fired by his touch, fanned by his kisses.

He moaned against her lips, pulled her closer to his body. Devastating her senses as he dragged his mouth away only to kiss his way along her jaw, her neck, trailing lower as tiny sparks grew into a brutal rage. _‘Not . . . enough_ ,’ she thought weakly as he rolled them to lean over her. Her body arched against him, shaking with instinctive need, unsure what it was she asked of him yet knowing that he, alone, could soothe her. She trembled in his arms, held him close when words failed her. A centrifugal heat that ached, throbbed, ebbed outward, filtered to the rest of her body, drew a flush to the surface of her skin. A driving necessity goaded her as the ache grew into an almost painful rhythm, and the rhythm of her body seemed to be calling his name.

His hand covered her breast. Through the abrasion of the cloth between his palm and her skin, the caress was shocking and entirely too inviting. With a sharp inhalation, Sango leaned against him as he bathed the gentle curve of her neck with the heat of his breath, the press of his open mouth against her pulse. He squeezed her gently, and she cried out. Her body was beyond her control. She tried to hold onto him, tried to drag him closer. “Please,” she mumbled, hoping he understood.

He resisted, suddenly letting his forehead drop against her shoulder, breath stuttered, shallow, rough. His hand fell away to support his weight, and when Sango managed to lift a hand to his cheek, she was amazed to find that he was trembling. “Miroku?” she whispered, struggling to clear her mind.

He sighed and shook his head slowly. “Sango . . . I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life . . . .”

She frowned, sensing that the emotion was past, that he had ended that kiss on purpose. “I don’t understand,” she admitted.

He leaned up on his elbows, staring down at her with a bittersweet smile, stroking her cheeks with the backs of his hands. “Sango, from the moment I met you, I knew that you were everything that was beautiful and pure in this world. I want you to remain that way until we are married. I will not taint you . . . even if it kills me.”

“Houshi-sama . . . .”

He closed his eyes for a moment then grinned wryly. “But it better be soon . . . .”

Suddenly she giggled unevenly. She knew exactly what he meant . . . .

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha dragged his claws methodically over Tetsusaiga’s blade, sharpening the fang to perfection as he intercepted yet another of Kagome’s long-suffering glances. She sat on the other side of the campsite on her bedroll with the resurrected calculus book open in her lap. Shippou had chosen to sit next to InuYasha, and he stared from the hanyou to Kagome then back again, a look of intense concentration on the youngster’s face.   “InuYasha?”

InuYasha paused in his work to glance at the kit.

Satisfied that he had InuYasha’s attention, Shippou scrunched up his little shoulders and wrinkled his nose. “Kagome smells funny.”

“Funny?” he echoed.

Shippou nodded. “Not bad, just funny. Go sniff her.”

InuYasha felt his face blossom in color. “Keh!” he snorted, hoping that Shippou would drop it. Unlike the kit, he knew what that smell emanating from Kagome was, and if it was strong enough for the kit to pick up on it, then there wasn’t any way in hell he dared get any closer to her than he already was.

“Why does she smell like that?” Shippou pressed, brow furrowing in confusion.

‘ _Because_ ,’ InuYasha thought with an inward grimace, ‘ _she wants the same thing I do, and we can’t . . . damn it._ ’ He sighed and shot the kitsune a glower. “I don’t smell anything.”

That seemed to perplex the kit even more. “You know, I remember my mother smelling like that sometimes . . . Father always took her swimming to wash it off.” He trailed off then suddenly grinned. “InuYasha, there’s a pond over there. Maybe Kagome can take a bath?”

It didn’t really help, to tell himself that Shippou really didn’t know what he was saying. For the first time in weeks, InuYasha was sorely pressed not to thump the child on the head. “It won’t fucking help,” he growled.

Shippou sighed, and, giving up getting a decent response out of InuYasha, the kitsune scrambled to his feet and swaggered over to Kagome. “Oi, wench! You got any pocky in that bag of yours?”

Kagome’s mouth dropped open in surprise. InuYasha shot to his feet. “What do you think you’re doing, runt?” he bellowed. “You don’t talk to Kagome like that!”

Shippou scampered over and hopped into Kagome’s arms. “You do!”

“He’s got a point,” Kagome remarked.

InuYasha opened his mouth to argue then snapped it closed when he realized that the kit was right. “ _I_ can do that. I’m older than her. You’re not.”

“I just want to be like you,” Shippou explained.

InuYasha’s eyes widened in alarm. “The hell you do!”

“What’s wrong with that?” Kagome asked neutrally.

“What do you mean, what’s wrong with that? You want him to end up like me? Keh!”

“Keh!” Shippou repeated.

“Knock that off!” InuYasha snarled.

“Keh!”

The look InuYasha shot Kagome was one of blatant warning. His meaning was clear, and she shook her head quickly. Narrowing his glare on her, InuYasha leaned forward and flicked the kit’s nose while Kagome flinched as Shippou dissolved in heartbroken sobs.

Kagome patted Shippou’s back to comfort him as she glared back at the hanyou. “Don’t comfort him, wench! He overstepped his bounds, and—”

“And he’s a child!”

“That won’t learn if we don’t teach him!”

“That’s so mean! How could you? He didn’t do anything that you don’t do!”

“That’s the whole fucking problem!” InuYasha turned on his heel and stomped away. “And you’d better not comfort him when he’s being punished or he’ll never listen to you!”

“But—”

InuYasha stopped and glared back over his shoulder. “We’re as close to parents as he’s gonna get, and you need to learn not to let him get away with that.”

Obviously stunned by InuYasha’s outburst, Kagome fell silent though she didn’t stop rubbing Shippou’s back.

Satisfied that he’d made his point, InuYasha disappeared on the path that led to the pond.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha sat on a large, flat rock that extended over the pond. Staring sadly at the moon above, he sighed. He wasn’t a father. He wasn’t even close to being a decent example for a kit to want to emulate. Didn’t Shippou know that? And Kagome . . . what was she thinking, encouraging that? She, better than anyone, should know that he was a horrible role model. Then she undid everything he tried to accomplish with Shippou by babying him. The kit was going to grow up all confused, and it would all be their faults.

She flat-out refused to discipline Shippou, too. ‘ _Our pups are going to be really bad_ ,’ he thought with a grimace. His eyes widened incredulously as he swallowed hard. ‘ _Pups?_ Our _pups? I’m thinking about_ pups _now? Keh!_ ’

Deliberately pushing those thoughts aside, InuYasha shook his head. Kagome and the kit were close and coming closer. He didn’t turn to look at either one.

“Go on,” Kagome whispered to the kitsune.

Shippou sighed then scampered up beside InuYasha. “InuYasha? I’m sorry . . . I won’t act like you, if you don’t want me to,” Shippou said quietly as he sat down beside the hanyou and stared at his hands.

InuYasha wasn’t sure what to do. Apparently the child had taken the punishment to heart despite Kagome arguing against it. Still, he wasn’t great in this sort of situation. But even an orphaned kitsune youkai had to be taught certain things, and even if InuYasha didn’t want to have to be the one to do it, there really wasn’t anyone else. ‘ _What do I do?_ ’

‘ _Keh. Just do the exact opposite of what you’d normally do_.’

On that advice, InuYasha hesitantly, clumsily, reached over and patted Shippou’s head.

“You don’t hate me?” Shippou squeaked.

“Keh. Don’t be stupid, runt.”

Shippou slowly picked up the box of pocky that he’d brought with him and offered InuYasha some. The hanyou shook his head but watched as the kit thoughtfully chewed one. “So are we going to be a family, then?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Only if you swear you’ll never try to be like me again.”

Shippou nodded. “All right. I promise.” A mischievous smile lit the kit’s eyes. “Does that mean I can call you Father?”

“You’d better never,” InuYasha snorted.

The kitsune yawned. “I’m going to go to bed. Sure is a nice night. Think I’ll sleep with Kirara . . . .” He leaned closer to InuYasha to whisper, “and will you do something about the way Kagome smells?”

InuYasha grabbed at the kit but missed as Shippou darted away, past Kagome and back toward camp, leaving the sound of childish giggles lingering in his wake.

“Shippou forgot his pocky,” Kagome remarked, gesturing at the box beside InuYasha.

InuYasha turned back to stare at the pond. “That kit is pushing his luck. You’ve got to discipline him, too.”

“I will,” she agreed. “But he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He just wants to be like you.”

“And that isn’t wrong enough?”

She giggled. “Not in my opinion.”

“Then you’re nuts.”

Kagome wandered over to lean against the rock. Bent at the waist with her elbow resting by his knees, InuYasha couldn’t help but stare at the way she’d positioned herself. Had she done that on purpose? He stifled a groan. Sure that she hadn’t, he still couldn’t ignore the provocative pose, or the cleft between her breasts that showed only too well as her neckline opened to his gaze. The Shikon no Tama dangled in the air, suspended on a chain so fine that it could barely be discerned. The swirl of white and pink, the ebb and flow of the nearly pure jewel held and protected by the purest of souls, by the giving heart of the strange and beguiling miko.

The little pink skirt she wore lifted in the breeze, bore her scent to him as a he dug his claws into the rock. That was the reason Shippou could smell her. Her scent was so strong, so overwhelming, so powerful that it made him dizzy. But it was the underlying scent that held him. As she stared at him, that scent impaled him, wormed its way so deeply into his brain that he nearly gave in, nearly reached for her.

“Why are you ignoring me?” she asked softly.

“I’m not,” he countered gruffly, forcing his gaze away from her, away from the things her posture spoke of, even if her mind didn’t.

With a sigh, she stood up and turned around, easily pushing herself up onto the rock, within his grasp. “If you’re not,” she said slowly, “prove it.”

Unaccountable nervousness crashed over him, and InuYasha leaned away. “What . . . how?”

“Stop acting like you think I’m going to bite you, for one,” she commented dryly. She shook her head and hopped down. “Goodnight, InuYasha.”

He sighed as he watched her leave. ‘ _Baka . . . why are you doing that?_ ’

Her scent lingered. He shuddered as he breathed her in again. ‘ _Damn it . . . this isn’t the time or the place for that_ . . . .’ Too many things still threatened them, too many things kept him from being able to feel as though claiming Kagome would do anything other than put her in even more danger. No matter what he wanted, despite whatever she might want, he couldn’t let her be put in that sort of position . . . .

Still, his human side spoke to him. ‘ _She only wanted you to hold her, baka. Would that have been so difficult?_ ’

He made a face. That would have been damn near impossible. Being that close to her would be akin to standing next to the sun, close enough to feel the burn, far enough away that he couldn’t touch it . . . . _‘Keh! I can’t just hold her. I can’t hold her without wanting to . ._ . .’

He grimaced. Was he really as selfish as that? Just because she drove him to the brink of his self-control he couldn’t give her what she needed, too? She wanted his reassurance that everything was all right, and . . . . ‘ _Keep pushing her away, and you’ll end up alone_.’

Coldness gripped his heart at that thought. That was the thing he feared above all else. He didn’t want her to leave him alone.

 

 

 

 

 


	61. The Great Shippouni

“There’s no one here.”

InuYasha stared at the abandoned castle, tightening his grip on Tetsusaiga. “I don’t like it. It’s too easy.”

Miroku nodded. “And you think your book is here?”

“I don’t know. It’s the best lead I’ve had, though. Where would he keep it?”

“And you’re sure Norimitsu has it, InuYasha?” Sango asked in a low tone.

InuYasha shot Kagome a glance. Kagome avoided it. She’d been so quiet since that night by the water, so withdrawn. It helped him. It saved him from having to keep himself under control. Well, sort of. No, now he just had to keep the desire to comfort her, to reassure her, at bay. It was better this way, for now.

InuYasha stifled a sigh. “Yes.”

“Why do you think Norimitsu would have it?” Miroku asked.

“He knows too much. He had to get his information from somewhere.”

Kagome put her hand over Shippou’s mouth and waved at the others. “Someone’s coming!”

Miroku got into position and waited as the others did the same. It had been decided that InuYasha’s proposed strategy of Kaze no Kizu-ing the door open and barging inside wouldn’t be conducive to searching the castle for the missing book. Miroku’s plan had been a little less violent, where they were all in position to grab the first person to leave the castle gates. With any luck, it’d be someone who could tell them where they might find the diary. But it was Sango who had proposed the idea they were utilizing, which, in Miroku’s opinion, was a far more subversive approach. Dressed in his familiar monk robes over his slayer clothes, he would try to gather information as a wandering Man of the Cloth.

Miroku stepped directly into the path of a young peasant woman as she lugged her cart through the castle gates. “Pardon me, Miss . . . I was wondering if you work here in the castle? If so, could I trouble you for a bit of information?”

The woman blushed. From her place hiding beside Kagome, Sango uttered an irritated growl. “Yes, I work for Norimitsu-sama . . . What sort of information, houshi-sama?”

Miroku offered his most winning smile. “I seek a book that has been rumored to be in your lord’s possession. It’s a diary . . . do you know if your lord is in possession of such a thing?”

The woman frowned thoughtfully and shook her head. “No . . . I can’t recall seeing any such—wait! There was a book months ago . . . . in Norimitsu-sama’s bureau. I was cleaning in there, you see. Small book? Brown hide? Very old?”

Miroku nodded. That was close to the description that InuYasha had given of the one he had in Kagome’s time. “That sounds like it must be the one . . . you didn’t by chance look inside the cover, did you? Because if you had, you would have seen the name Izayoi?”

A light flush stained the woman’s cheeks prettily, and she shrugged. Slowly, cautiously, the woman nodded once. “I wasn’t peeking, mind . . . but aye, that name, and another . . . InuYasha?”

Miroku bowed humbly, taking the woman’s hand in his. “My heartfelt gratitude, Miss . . . .” He straightened his back and stared as the woman bowed, too. Without thinking, he reached over and rubbed. The woman screeched and hurried off with her cart as a very angry Sango stepped out from behind the bushes, brandishing Hiraikotsu menacingly.

“Give me one good reason _not_ to clobber you, you lecher!” she growled, exasperation manifested in her movements.

“It’s got to be the _robes_! They’re cursed!” Miroku hurried to explain.

“The robes, huh? Give it a rest, pervert,” InuYasha remarked as he stomped past the couple.

Seconds later, Sango’s strangled gasp filled the air followed by the crack of palm meeting cheek.

“What are you planning to do?” Kagome asked as she caught up with the hanyou.

He shot her a condescending look. “I’m going to get that diary,” he answered, as though it was obvious.

“InuYasha! You can’t just waltz up there and demand it,” she pointed out in a way-too-reasonable voice.

“Hide and watch, wench.”

“No! You don’t know where Norimitsu is! He could be in there, for all you know!”

“Keh! We’ve watched the castle for the better part of two days! If he was in there, we would’ve seen him. I didn’t come all this way for nothing. I’m getting my mother’s diary. Now move.”

“No. You don’t know he’s not in there, and you’re not storming the castle alone, InuYasha!” The miko’s aura surrounding her crackled and popped, sizzled as it reached out, seemingly of its own accord, to wrap around InuYasha’s youki to contain it.

“Wench—!”

“ _No!_ ”

“Kagome’s right,” Sango remarked as she caught up with them. “You can’t just rush in there without a plan, InuYasha. Norimitsu might not be here but that doesn’t mean that the castle is defenseless.” Miroku was right behind her with a bright red handprint on his cheek and a deliriously happy grin on his face.

“Keh,” InuYasha snorted, catching sight of the monk. “Serves you right. ‘Monk-in-Pain’. There you go.”

“I love being a monk,” Miroku said with a dreamy smile.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and brushed off Kagome’s hand as he strode toward the castle gates again. Kagome didn’t give up so easily. “You can’t!” she insisted again.

“Listen to Kagome for once,” Miroku remarked as he and Sango got closer. Shippou hopped up on InuYasha’s shoulder. “It is probably still in Norimitsu’s chambers, if the woman was correct.”

“Damn it,” InuYasha growled, flexing his claws in exasperation. “We’re wasting time! I’m going now!”

“Let’s try to think of something else first, InuYasha!” Kagome pleaded.

“Like what? You got an idea?”

Her expression darkened as she shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, no . . . .”

“Keh! Didn’t think so.”

“I could get it,” the little voice said quietly.

All eyes turned to stare at Shippou. Kagome was the first to speak. “No, Shippou. It’s too dangerous.”

Shippou puffed out his chest proudly. “Keh! I’m kitsune youkai! Stealth is my middle name! Subversion is my way of life! Secrecy is my specialty . . . and I’ve got all those great magic tricks that I’ve learned, too!” Sango and Miroku exchanged worried glances. Shippou looked like he’d suddenly realized something as he hurriedly covered his nose with his little hands. “I wasn’t trying to be like you, InuYasha!”

Kagome sighed, shaking her head slowly as she tried to find a way to tell the kit that he wasn’t going to go. “Shippou, it’s great that you wish to help, but I don’t—”

InuYasha cut her off, a thoughtful frown on his face as he stared at the kitsune with a narrowed gaze. “You know, I bet the runt could do it. What do you think, Shippou? You want to try?”

Kagome’s eyes widened in shock as she gaped at InuYasha.   “InuYasha! No!” He ignored her and watched as Shippou hopped down and ran toward the castle gates. “What are you thinking? Go get him!”

InuYasha shook his head as Miroku spoke up, “Shippou’s right. If anyone has a chance of sneaking in and getting out without getting caught, it’d be him.”

Kagome frowned as she watched Shippou transform himself into the image of the woman that had supplied them with information.   He’d gotten good enough at the illusion that he didn’t even have a tail.

“InuYasha, if something happens to him, I swear I’ll—” Kagome warned as she twisted her hands together nervously.

InuYasha cast her an indecipherable look. “If anything happens to him, I’ll let you.”

‘ _He’s worried, too_ . . . .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Shippou walked calmly into the castle among the humans and the few youkai as he tried not to draw notice. ‘ _If I was Norimitsu, where would my bedchamber be? Hmm . . . ._ ’ Shippou shrugged. ‘ _Up the great staircase, of course!_ ’

Shooting a quick glance around, he hurried up the stairs. ‘ _Here I go . . . the Great Shippouni . . . on a mission that will test my skill and daring . . . . Though many have entered, few have survived in this, the Hall of Hell . . . also known as Norimitsu’s stronghold_ . . . .’

Peeking into the different rooms as he came to them, Shippou concentrated on keeping his disguise in place as he hurried down the hallway. ‘ _The hanyou was too noisy to be of any real help, plus he loses his temper far too easily . . . the human monk would be too distracted by the women of the castle . . . the youkai exterminator would be too busy trying to control the monk . . . Kagome probably could have done this—if she could have gotten away from InuYasha long enough to, which I doubt . . . . So that leaves me—the Great Shippouni—alone on this most important mission! This Shippouni shall not fail!_ ’

Stopping outside the last door in the hallway, on the very end, Shippou nodded slowly. ‘ _This has to be it . . . the Great Shippouni is going in! Mission: retrieve hanyou’s diary . . ._.’

He opened the door and peeked inside. Norimitsu’s lingering scent was overwhelming, and Shippou made a face. ‘ _He even smells foul._ ’ The kitsune slipped into the chamber and transformed back to his normal form. ‘ _The woman said it was in a bureau . ._ . .’

There was only one bureau in the room. Shippou skittered over to it and rifled through the drawers, careful not to mess up anything in his search. It wasn’t there. _‘Trouble with Mission: hanyou’s diary is not here . . . ahh . . . coffers!_ ’ Vigilant to close the drawers back without making a sound, the kitsune hurried over to search through the first of three coffers at the foot of the very large futon.

With an entirely pleased, almost sinister in a wholly-childish-way laugh, Shippou pulled the old diary out of the middle coffer and held it up for inspection. ‘ _Mission: accomplished! Never send an inu-hanyou to do a kitsune’s task! Keh!_ ’

Stashing the diary inside his shirt, Shippou resumed his female disguise and hurried out of the chamber and down the stairs. ‘ _Now, just get out of here and back to the others, and I’m home free . . . ._ ’

Shippou squelched a shocked cry as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around. “Wench! There you are! Stop lazing around and get in the kitchen!”

“I . . . uhh . . . I have to run an errand,” Shippou hurriedly said.

The man eyed him suspiciously. “Did something happen to your voice? You sound a bit off . . . .”

Shippou coughed in the man’s face. “Nothing, really, sore throat . . . very painful . . . .”

The man stepped back and shoved Shippou toward the doors. “Get ye gone, wench! We don’t need ye coughing all over the food!”

Shippou didn’t wait to hear more. Taking off as fast as he could, the kitsune raced across the room and out the doors, transforming back into his normal shape as he darted through the castle gates. He skidded to a stop just before Kagome grabbed him up, squeezing the life out of him in her relief. “I got it,” he choked out, digging the diary out of his shirt and handing it over to InuYasha. InuYasha stowed the diary into his haori after flipping back the cover and seeing the inscription. It was the diary. He’d recovered it, at least . . . . “Oi, wench! I can’t breathe!” Shippou grouched then gasped and covered his nose as he shot a fearful glance at the hanyou.

InuYasha did reach for the kitsune’s head. Shippou squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for the imminent tweak that never came. Instead, InuYasha ruffled his hair. “Not bad, runt. Not bad.” InuYasha turned to lead them away from the castle but stopped short at the equally stunned looks on the exterminators’ faces. “What?” he growled as he deliberately stalked off between them. Shippou lunged out of Kagome’s arms to land on InuYasha’s shoulder.

“What was that?” Sango asked incredulously.

“I can’t say that’s a positive development,” Miroku remarked with a shake of his head.

Kagome passed them both. Neither missed the small smile on the miko’s face.

“That was odd.”

Miroku nodded. “Let’s hope he doesn’t really take after InuYasha. One hot head is enough.”

Sango nodded, too, before falling in step behind Kagome. “Let’s go.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“And for my next illusion, I need two volunteers . . . . InuYasha and Kagome! You two look like good sports!”

InuYasha shot Kagome a sidelong glance. Sitting across from him on her bedroll, Kagome didn’t look like she really wanted anything at all to do with him, not that he could really blame her. This entire trip had been nothing but a battle of wills: his desire to protect her from his baser instincts, and her need to be near him, to draw comfort from him. The trouble with that was that he really couldn’t stand to be near her because those impulses were getting harder and harder to ignore. Bad enough in the beginning. It used to be that kissing was the only thing that triggered the tell-tale shifting in her scent. Lately, though, it only seemed to take an innocent look. Why that was, he wasn’t sure. ‘ _Baka . . . because of that stupid stunt you pulled in the stream that one day . . . the test backfired on you. Kagome saw what you wanted her to see, and now you’re paying the price for that. That’s what you get for not thinking your plan through . . . . Keh!_ ’

But Kagome got up and walked over to Shippou, which meant that she fully expected him to do the same, and after Shippou had so brilliantly executed the diary mission, he really didn’t have the heart to deny the kit a bit of fun. Shaking back his raven locks—he hated that he was human and vulnerable for the night—he stood and headed over to the kitsune and miko.

Miroku and Sango, with Kirara curled on her lap, sat in rapt attention, waiting for this new ‘trick’. Shippou grinned at both InuYasha and Kagome. “Hold out your hands, please.”

They both did. Shippou frowned. “A little closer, please.” They complied again. InuYasha rolled his eyes. A sudden ‘snick, snick’ and a smooth cold something against his wrist, and InuYasha gaped at the shiny metal ringlet that encompassed his wrist—and at the matching one around Kagome’s.

“Shippou . . . .”

Shippou giggled. “Now for the magic words, and the manacles will miraculously disappear!” Waving the small black wand, the kitsune drew a deep breath and said, “Abracadabra! Make the shackles disappear!”

And, of course, the handcuffs stayed right where they were.

“Shippou,” Kagome began, trying to keep her tone even, “please tell me you have the key . . . ?”

“Fucking now, runt,” InuYasha threatened.

Covering his head with one hand, the kitsune waved the other as if to stall the thumping he knew was brewing in InuYasha’s mind. “All right . . . I’ll unlock you if you really want me to . . . .” Shippou dug around in his magic kit box as InuYasha glowered at the kit. Kagome shifted her weight from one leg to the other nervously. “Umm . . . I . . . umm . . . I can’t find the key . . . .”

“ _What?_ ” InuYasha bellowed.

Miroku and Sango exchanged amused glances. “Bet he lost it on purpose,” Miroku muttered. Sango nodded.

“You’d better fucking find it, runt, or I’ll thump you good!”

Kagome winced at the absolute hostility in InuYasha’s tone. She turned as best as she could and started rummaging through the box with her free hand. “Shippou, where did you put that key?” she demanded, her voice rising in panic.

“I had it in there, honest!” Shippou whined, wringing his hands nervously.

“Damn it, Shippou, get over here so I can thump you!”

“InuYasha!”

“Fuck! You do it! You can reach him better than I can!”

“I’m _not_ thumping him!”

“Miroku! Sango! Help me!” Shippou squealed, launching himself over InuYasha and Kagome’s arms and straight onto Sango’s lap. He landed on Kirara who shrieked out a frightened yowl. Miroku jumped up as Kirara swiped at him with her paw since he had been holding Sango’s hand and was therefore the first thing that Kirara saw when rudely awakened. Sango tried to restrain the fire cat youkai as well as the kitsune, who was trying to crawl into her body, if his frantic movements meant anything. InuYasha growled menacingly. Kagome started to cry.

“Oi! No crying, wench!” InuYasha snarled. “What the hell are you crying for?”

“I’m not crying!” she sobbed. “I’m going to bed!” Her grand exit was halted when InuYasha refused to budge from his spot. The cuff around her wrist stopped her, and she stumbled back. “What are you waiting for? Break it!”

InuYasha glared at her. “That anxious to be rid of me? Fine!”

“I’m not the one acting like you don’t exist, baka!”

“Keh!” Grabbing hold of the slack chain between their joined wrists, InuYasha tried to jerk them apart. Kagome yelped as the cuff cut into her wrist, and he immediately stopped. “Damn it!”

With a frustrated sigh and a quiet sniffle, Kagome sat down, her arm raised, supported by the handcuff and InuYasha. “I thought you said you were going to bed,” he grumbled.

“Well, I can’t since you won’t move,” she replied mulishly.

“Come on, Miroku, let’s go wash that out,” Sango remarked as she examined the lacerations on the back of Miroku’s hand. The two exterminators and the kitsune hurried toward the nearby river.

Kagome jumped when InuYasha stuck his free hand under her nose. She ignored it and stood up, stiffly walking over to her bedroll and flopping down with a wince as his wrist tugged hers. “Easy, wench. I’m human tonight, remember?”

She sighed as he sat down behind her, leaning forward enough that she could comfortably move her arm. “I remember.”

He winced at her sad, defeated tone.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The stars reflected off the mirror of the lake, a myriad of colors dancing in the night. A soft breeze rippled over the humans and kitsune. Shippou sighed and stared at the water.

“Hand it over, Shippou,” Miroku finally said, flexing his hand under the bandage that Sango had carefully applied.

Shippou dug into his shirt and pulled out the tiny silver key. “How’d you know?”

Miroku shook his head. “Come now, Shippou. I know every trick in the book, remember? And I saw you stick it in your shirt.”

Shippou sighed again. “They have to talk, Miroku. If they don’t talk, InuYasha will never take Kagome as his mate, and if he doesn’t do that, then he’ll mess up everything.”

“Everything?” Sango echoed.

Shippou shrugged, his little shoulder drooping slightly. “All I wanted since my father died was a family. That’s all, I swear . . . I just thought maybe . . . .”

Miroku smiled. “Well, your heart’s in the right place. Tell you what. Unless it seems as though it will do more harm than good, I’ll keep the key until tomorrow morning.”

Shippou dashed a hand over his eyes. “You . . . You will?”

Miroku ruffled the kit’s hair. “Far be it for me to ruin your dream.”

Shippou finally smiled, and the three stared at the lake in silence.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sango, Miroku, and Shippou with Kirara curled around him slept soundly.

In the middle of the night darkness, InuYasha kept watch over his sleeping friends. Careful not to disturb the chain between his wrist and Kagome’s, he shifted and sighed. ‘ _Damn that kit . . . I know he did this on purpose . . . what the hell is with everyone? Why do they care so much about what happens between Kagome and me_?’

Staring at the dancing flames, he frowned. He hadn’t found Norimitsu but at least he’d been able to recover the diary. _‘I’ll find him, too, and I’ll make him talk ._ . . .’

Another odd thing he’d noticed today suddenly occurred to him. They’d run into a couple of weaker youkai earlier, and when he’d drawn Tetsusaiga, he’d noticed that the blue aura around the blade had diminished again, almost the same shade of bluish-white that he’d first noticed the night that Kouga had tried to take Kagome, the first night he’d seen the Aoirotoku in action.

“InuYasha?”

Startled out of his musings by the sound of Kagome’s voice, he sighed. “Thought you were sleeping.”

“Can I ask you something?”

Something in the tone of her voice made his chest ache. “I ain’t stopping you.”

She sighed, and he heard her swallow hard, as though she was trying not to cry. “Have you . . . did you . . . . It’s okay if you’ve changed your mind, you know? I understand . . . .”

His frown darkened. “Changed my mind? About what?”

“About you and . . . and me . . . .”

“What?”

He could hear the thickness in her voice, the tears that swelled in her throat. “You can tell me. I won’t hate you.”

“Keh! Stop talking nonsense, wench. Of course I haven’t changed my mind . . . . Have you?”

“No,” she sniffled. “But why—?”

He made a sound midway between a growl and a sigh. “I just . . . I’ve got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

She rolled over onto her back to stare up at him. Her eyes were dark, shadowed. She was hurting, and it was his fault. He wanted to give her what she needed, the reassurance that he still wanted to be with her. For now, though, there wasn’t much he could offer without damning himself, too. “And you can’t tell me what these things are?”

“Don’t worry,” he muttered. “Go to sleep. We’ve got a long way to go tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she agreed softly. “InuYasha . . . will you kiss me?”

He stared at her for a moment then leaned over, placing a warm kiss on her forehead. “Now go to sleep,” he said gruffly.

He didn’t miss the tears in her gaze as she closed her eyes. A terrible melancholy seemed to flow from her, touching him deep, leaving his own soul aching. He reached out to touch her but stopped. He couldn’t, not yet, not until he’d found some sort of foundation, some sort of stability. He owed her that. He owed her a lot.

Surrendering to an exhausted sleep, InuYasha sighed when Kagome’s breathing evened out. Stroking her hair with his human fingers, InuYasha closed his eyes against the pain that surrounded her, as thick and stifling as Naraku’s miasma had been but in a completely different way.

As though she could feel his touch in her sleep, Kagome sighed and shifted, turning her head toward him as she nestled her cheek against his palm. He leaned over again, kissing her cheek, her eyes, her nose. She didn’t stir.

‘ _Baka! Just a little longer, Kagome . . . let me get a few more answers . . . for us_.’

 

 

 

 

 


	62. Comeuppance

“What are you afraid of?”

InuYasha shot Miroku a sidelong glare. “Keh. I fear nothing.”

Miroku sighed and straightened the sickle on his belt. “Whatever you say . . . though if you really weren’t afraid, you’d let me read it.”

“It’s none of your fucking business.”

“But perhaps there are things in it that you’ve not realized, hints about Tetsusaiga, perhaps? How to achieve this ultimate power?”

InuYasha snorted indelicately. “Shut up, monk. Drop it. You ain’t reading it.”

“ _Ow!_ ”

The men stopped and turned around. Kagome sat on the ground holding her knee. Sango knelt beside her. Shippou ran to InuYasha, hopping up and down in his worried state. “InuYasha! Kagome hurt her knee!”

Miroku hurried over to the women. InuYasha caught Shippou. “How’d she do that?”

Shippou shifted his eyes from side to side. “Well . . . we were walking . . . .”

InuYasha rolled his hand, as though the gesture would hurry the kitsune along. “Did she step in a hole or something?”

Shippou nodded quickly. “Yeah! A hole!”

InuYasha narrowed his suspicious gaze on the kit before he dropped Shippou onto his shoulder as he strode back to Kagome and the others. “What’d you do, wench?”

She stared up at him. “I tripped,” she replied with a scowl, “over a stick.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a hole?” Shippou asked loudly.

Kagome’s eyes widened, quickly followed by a nervous laugh. “Oh, yeah, a hole. Clumsy me!”

He stared at her, arms crossed over his chest, a small grin toying with the corners of his lips. ‘ _Sneaky wench thinks she’s going to fool me? There’s not a damn thing wrong with her. I’d smell it if there were . . . . Keh!_ ’ Slowly, deliberately, he turned around. “Oi, Miroku! Toss her over my shoulder, will you?”

Kagome gasped and blushed. Sango sputtered indignantly. Miroku chuckled. “All right—why?”

InuYasha pointed at Shippou. “I’ve got the kit.”

“I’ll walk,” Kagome grumbled.

“And don’t _touch_ anything or I’ll shred you,” InuYasha warned.

“How am I supposed to pick her up if I can’t touch anything?” Miroku asked reasonably.

“Keh. Lecher. Use your brain.”

Miroku’s chuckle grew into a full laugh. He caught Kagome around her waist and stepped over to the hanyou. InuYasha caught her against his chest and draped her over his shoulder despite her protests.

As they started walking again, InuYasha frowned. He’d meant to make Kagome admit that she was faking her injury. Instead he was being subversively besieged by her scent. Entirely too close for his comfort, there wasn’t any way he could possibly move her without making her more comfortable and ruining the comeuppance he was shooting for.

“InuYasha, I can’t breathe,” she complained, bracing her elbow against his back and leaning up to talk to him. “Your shoulder is squashing me.”

“Then stop wasting your breath by blabbing.”

“You don’t have any compassion, do you?”

“Keh.”

“I think I’m getting motion-sick.”

“Aim away from the clothes.”

“I ought to purify you,” she pouted.

“Keh. Then who’ll carry you?”

Shippou sighed. “If you two are just going to argue, then I’m going to walk with the _normal_ ones.” With that, the kitsune hopped off InuYasha’s shoulder and ran back to Miroku and Sango.

“Keh! The day the monk’s the normal one is the day I keel over dead,” InuYasha snorted.

Kagome sighed.

“Ready to admit it yet, wench?” he muttered so that only Kagome would hear.

“Admit what?” she asked a little too innocently.

InuYasha moved his hand to get a better hold on her before she slipped and really did end up injured. His claws accidentally dragged over the backs of her bare thighs, and she gasped. The change in her scent hit him hard, and he nearly stumbled as he stifled a low growl. “That you’re faking,” he finally remarked.

“What makes you think I’m—?”

He cut her off with a vicious snarl. “Fucking Kouga,” he bit out as he stared toward the ravine. In order to save some time in their return trip, they were cutting through the wolves’ territory. InuYasha wished they’d taken the longer way, though, as Kouga sped down the side of the mountain with a superior grin and a condescending air.

Kouga’s grin widened as he raised his eyebrows in obvious amusement. Stepping around InuYasha to look at Kagome’s red face, the wolf laughed outright. “Oi, Kagome. How goes it?”

She forced a weak laugh. “Hi, Kouga . . . never better.”

“Stop fucking talking to her,” InuYasha snarled.

“Something bothering you, Kagome?” Kouga went on, ignoring InuYasha.

“Hmm, nope. Not a thing.”

The wolf youkai chuckled and finally deigned to look at InuYasha. “You still haven’t done it, have you?” he asked with a shake of his head. “Well, either you’re too much of a gentleman—which _can’t_ be true—you’re scared—which _could_ be true—or you just don’t know how—which is _probably absolutely_ true.”

InuYasha finally lowered Kagome back to her feet and pushed her behind his back as he drew Tetsusaiga. “I’ve been looking for a reason to shove Tetsusaiga up your ass. Bend over, Kouga.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome yelled, ducking between the two adversaries.

“Thought you twisted your knee, wench.”

She made a face. “It’s suddenly all better, thanks.”

“Keh!” he snorted, tweaking her nose. “That’s for lying.”

She tweaked him back. “And that’s for being a baka. Stop threatening Kouga, will you?”

InuYasha stopped mid-tweak as Kouga tossed his head back in laughter. “You two want to borrow my cave? It’ll take what? Thirty seconds? A minute, tops. Just clean up after you’re done. Ayame hates it when visitors leave messes.”

InuYasha growled.

Kagome frowned in confusion. “Thirty seconds? For what?”

InuYasha’s growl escalated into a snarl.

Kouga laughed even harder as Ayame ran down the mountain and stopped next to her mate. “InuYasha! Kagome! How are you?”

Kagome’s eyes widened as she gaped at the female wolf youkai’s distended belly. “You—you’re—wow! Kouga, you didn’t tell us that Ayame was going to have a baby!”

InuYasha rolled his eyes and dropped Tetsusaiga into the scabbard.

“What are you doing? You can’t go running around the mountainsides in your condition!” Kouga blustered, tweaking Ayame’s nose. “What if you hurt the pup?”

“Get over it, Kouga. I’ll die if I don’t get out of the den once in awhile.” Ayame wrinkled her nose and grabbed Kagome’s arm. “Let them piss all over each other,” Ayame whispered as she dragged Kagome toward Miroku and Sango. Miroku nodded his greeting as he passed them on his way to intervene between InuYasha and Kouga.

“Ayame, I mean it!” Kouga hollered. She waved her hand at him. He sighed, obviously losing that round with his mate. Turning back to InuYasha, the wolf youkai’s smile faded. “What the hell are you doing, dog-shit?”

InuYasha bared his fangs in a grimace. “Shut the hell up, mangy wolf, or I’ll shut you up forever.”

Kouga didn’t back down. “I always knew you were a baka, but don’t you realize what you’re doing?”

“Stay out of it, Kouga. It’s none of your business.”

Kouga shook his head. “You’ve got serious impulse control problems, you know that, mutt-face? That ain’t going to solve the problem. You can’t let an unclaimed bitch run around smelling like that or she _will_ be claimed in a second.”

“Of course I know what the fuck I’m doing . . . and if any of ‘em tried it, I’d rip out their guts.”

“Kagome, you mean? Interesting,” Miroku piped up.

InuYasha shot him a glower as he stifled a groan. ‘ _Fucking outnumbered again . . . ._ ’ He crossed his arms together and snorted. “Keh. I’m protecting her.”

“The hell you are! Look, I don’t care if you claim her right here, right now, fact is, you gotta do it, InuYasha, or you’re going to lose her. Her scent—”

“Don’t _even_ say it.”

Kouga grimaced. “Someone’s gotta tell you since you’re not taking clues from her, baka!”

“I get her fucking clues just fine!” InuYasha snarled. “I get them loud and clear, all day, all night, _every_ day and _every_ night! I’ve gotten _all_ of them! Now shut the hell up and get out of my way before I make your pup an orphan before it’s even born!”

“Well, it’s obvious to me that you plan on making her your mate sometime—unless you’re disciplining her for kicks?”

“The nose tweaking?” Miroku piped up.

InuYasha pinned the monk with another glower, and confirmed Miroku’s assessment in the doing. “I don’t want your advice, Kouga. I don’t need it. Now back off. We’ve got a long way to go.”

Kouga leaned in, standing nose to nose with InuYasha. “Do something about it, InuYasha. Stop acting like a fucking pup and do something before someone else comes along and does it for you.”

“That won’t happen,” InuYasha snarled quietly. Drawing Tetsusaiga, he held it on the wolf with every intention of using the blade. The wind wrapped around it. “Now back the fuck off.”

Kouga frowned as he stared at Tetsusaiga. Suddenly he nodded, as though something made perfect sense. “Hm. As usual, you’re the last to figure it out, huh?”

InuYasha ground his teeth together as he struggled for a measure of patience he didn’t have. “What the fuck are you talking about now?”

“You and Kagome not getting along too well, dog-shit?”

InuYasha’s gaze narrowed.

“Not really,” Miroku answered.

“Shut the fuck up, Miroku! What do you know?”

Kouga shook his head slowly. “You’re some piece of work, InuYasha. You’re about to lose her forever, and you’re too fucking stupid to know it.” He turned on his heel. “Ayame, come on,” he called out to her.   Kouga swept Ayame into his arms before he sped up the canyon walls again.

InuYasha’s scowl dropped to Tetsusaiga. The color was lighter, the same as it was when he’d first realized it had changed. The last time Kouga had seen Tetsusaiga, the blade was much darker. What did it mean?

‘ _It has something to do with Kagome and me? Keh . . . that can’t be true_ _. . . . Kouga doesn’t know anything_ . . . .’

He sheathed Tetsusaiga and called for the others to follow. Miroku started to speak. The look InuYasha shot him silenced the monk.

Unfortunately, InuYasha had to admit, Kouga _did_ know something, at least about Kagome’s scent. If it weren’t bad enough that she was already a walking, talking youkai magnet because of the Shikon no Tama, her scent was enough to lure in youkai by the droves, and Kouga was right, damn it. All it took was one moment for one of those youkai to get his hands on Kagome, and it would all be done but the crying . . . .

He growled and stomped back, grabbing Kagome’s hand and dragging her up onto his back as he took of at an all-out sprint. Leaving the others behind without another thought or any explanation at all, InuYasha pushed them faster and further. _‘The only place she’ll be safe from that is in her time . . . alone_.’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _It’s almost time_.’

Sesshoumaru leaned against the balcony railing, staring out over the mid-afternoon city. Alive, throbbing with a mechanized rhythm, the beat of the city pounded in his skull. ‘ _Is this truly what I desired so long ago? This filth? This stagnant air that stifles me?_ ’ He shook his head slowly.

From this place, he could see the top of the Sunset Shrine, the majesty of Goshinboku. He grimaced. ‘ _That I must leave everything in the hands of that baka half-breed brother of mine . . . . Do not fail, InuYasha . . ._ .’

“Father, pardon my intrusion. Jaken gave me this. It arrived earlier.”

Sesshoumaru turned and accepted the small wooden box that his son extended toward him. “Thank you, Nibori,” he remarked as he careful lifted the hinged lid. The fang gleamed, nestled in the folds of wine colored silk. The thin gold chain glinted in the daylight as he lifted the necklace with the singular fang.

‘ _Totosai . . . you have served me well . . . ._ ’

Slowly, deliberately, Sesshoumaru plucked one strand of his silvery hair. Nibori did the same and offered it to his father, as well. Narrowing his gaze on the two strands of hair, a pale green light enveloped the strands, merging them together, fusing them into one. Sesshoumaru took his time wrapping the hair around the fang.

“So it isn’t meant to be a simple concealment charm.”

“InuYasha needs no concealment charm. The miko could do that on her own.”

The two watched in silence as the fang absorbed the hairs. Pulsing with a ruby light, the fang shined, glowed, then faded back to normal. ‘ _Imbued with the strength of the inu youkai . . . ._ ’

“When will you see that he gets it?” Nibori asked as Sesshoumaru dropped the dormant fang necklace back into the wooden case.

Sesshoumaru sighed and stuck the box in his pocket. “As soon as we are certain.”

Nibori stared at his father then nodded. He turned to go but stopped at the threshold. “This could backfire, Father. Uncle InuYasha doesn’t seem to like you very much, does he?”

Sesshoumaru broke into a slow grin, the depths of his amber gaze awash with ironic humor. True enough, it could blow up right in their faces, if InuYasha didn’t keep his renowned temper in check. Still, it was a risk that they had to take. There was far too much riding on this one thing for it to fail.

“And that is the reason we wait.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome sat on the edge of the Bone Eater’s Well and sighed as she stared at InuYasha. Standing about ten feet away with his arms crossed, he was gazing off toward the forest. “Well, I guess I should go back now,” she remarked in an overly happy tone.

“A week, all right?”

She blinked in surprise. “A whole week? It’ll only take me two days to finish . . . .”

He shrugged. “Just take the week. You haven’t been there much lately, anyway.”

‘ _Why’s he being so nice about this? Normally he has a fit when I want to take the two days for the tests . . . a week?_ ’

“If you’re sure you won’t be mad . . . .”

“Keh. Just go already. I got things to do.”

Kagome tried to brush aside the hurt InuYasha’s harsh tone inspired. “Will you . . . would you . . . will you come with me? Just for awhile?”

“Maybe later.”

She sighed. Her eyes were hot, prickly. No tears came. Maybe she’d already cried too much. She felt curiously numb instead. “I’ll see you in a week, then.”

“Kagome . . . .”

She stopped, not daring to look at him. Back stiff and straight, the strain between her shoulder blades was painful. His arms wrapped around her, his cheek rubbed against hers. “Be safe.”

She started to relax against him, relief coursing through her in waves. “InuYasha—”

He let go of her and stepped back. Kagome closed her eyes against the overwhelming sense of loss. “You’d better go.”

Stifling a whimper, Kagome pushed herself off the side of the well, dropping into the warmth of the time slip as tears formed in her eyes. Why was he doing that? Why did he feel so far away? Why did she feel like he was saying goodbye?

All too soon, she felt her feet land on the ground on her side of the slip. With a defeated sigh, she pulled herself up the ladder and out of the well. The last things on her mind were her tests. She just knew she was going to fail them all.


	63. Tests

Kagome shut off the computer with a dejected sigh. ‘ _That’s great. Last test, and you know you failed it. Let’s not gild the lily here, Kagome. You not only failed those tests, you probably just succeeded in achieving the single worst grades ever, in the history of grade keeping_.’ She pulled a disgusted face and turned to stare out the window.

‘ _Four more days . . . ._ ’

It was a little perverse. Normally she argued with InuYasha to let her stay in her time longer than the couple of days to take her exams. Now that he’d all but shoved her down the well, she wanted to go back in the worst way.

‘ _But if I go back now, I’ll bet he’d still have something snide to say. What’s wrong with him lately? If I went back now, he’d just growl at me, and then I’d be upset so I’d say something I don’t mean . . . ._ ’

Still, she couldn’t deny how badly she missed just being near him. Even if he was acting strange, even if he ignored her completely, there was still a sense of being protected, of being sheltered. It was a feeling that she didn’t have here when InuYasha was still five hundred years away.

A soft knock on her door drew her out of her depressing thoughts. “Come in,” she called, expecting to see her mother peek inside.

Souta pushed the door open and hesitated. Looking as though he expected Kagome to jump down his throat about the intrusion, he shifted from one foot to the other nervously. “You finished with your exams?”

She nodded and waved him inside. “I can go, if you’re busy,” he offered.

Kagome shook her head and forced a smile. “Don’t be silly, Souta. What do you need?”

Souta paced around for a few minutes then finally sank down on the edge of her bed. “What’s it like to kiss someone?”

Blinking in surprise, Kagome watched as her ‘baby’ brother’s face shot up in embarrassed color. ‘ _Baby? Souta’s nearly thirteen now . . ._ ’ she thought with a grimace. “Kissing someone?” she echoed, glad that she was already sitting down. “What makes you think I know?”

Souta frowned. “You mean you guys sleep all wrapped around each other and haven’t kissed . . . ?”

It was her turn to blush. “W-well, it’s, umm, uhh . . . nice.”

“Nice? That’s it?”

“Not just nice, no . . . but if it’s the right person, then it’s special . . . . Why are you asking?”

Souta’s blush darkened. “No reason,” he mumbled.

“Tell me the truth, Souta. You have someone in mind you want to kiss?”

“. . . Maybe.”

Kagome suddenly grinned. “Is she pretty?”

Souta scowled at her. “Of course she’s pretty!”

“How pretty?” Souta abruptly shot to his feet and stomped to the door. Kagome giggled and waved her hand to stop him. “All right, I’m sorry! I was only teasing.”

Souta stopped and shot his sister a cunning look. “Kagome . . . have you and InuYasha . . . _you know_ . . . ?”

Kagome’s jaw dropped as she gaped at Souta. “No!” she gasped out. “Souta! I can’t believe you’d ask me that!”

Souta grinned unrepentantly. “I was just curious!” he insisted.

She snatched up a paperweight and acted like she was about to heave it at his head. Souta laughed and ducked out of the room before she could carry out her threat.

Dropping the paperweight with a low groan, Kagome folded her arms together on her desk and dropped her head into the makeshift cradle. ‘ _Oh, be honest, Kagome . . . you aren’t nearly as upset that Souta asked you that as you are that the answer was ‘no’. You want him so badly that it keeps you awake at night. He’s everything to you; he has been since the beginning, or at least close to it. Just give him some time. Maybe he’s as confused about everything as you are_.’

She shook her head, unwilling to admit as much, even to herself.

With a heavy sigh, Kagome got up and emptied her backpack, taking inventory and making a list of the things she needed to buy before she headed back. As she reread her list, she couldn’t help but wonder. ‘ _InuYasha . . . when I come back, will you be as happy to see me as I will be to see you?_ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha watched as Shippou carefully wrote his letters in the notebook. Tongue sticking out of the side of his little mouth, brow furrowed in a concentrated frown, Shippou slowly and meticulously crafted the forms in the exact way that InuYasha had showed him.

Hiding his smirk from the kitsune, InuYasha turned his attention outside. ‘ _Two more days before Kagome will come back_ ,’ he thought with an inward sigh as his ears drooped. He’d known it was a mistake about the second she’d disappeared into the time slip. Stubborn pride had kept him from leaping in after her.

Shippou was the only one who dared remain anywhere close to InuYasha. Miroku had worn out his welcome the next morning when they had straggled back into the village demanding to know why InuYasha had grabbed Kagome and run. Sango wasn’t much better. She’d pushed him to the brink of his patience by nightfall with her incessant commentary on how cold and cruel InuYasha had been to Kagome during the trip.

Now if he could get Shippou to stop trying to sneak away to sit by the well—as though that would work to make her come back sooner, and InuYasha knew that, firsthand, since he’d done that every night—he would be one step ahead of the game. All he could think about was Kouga’s dire prediction: ‘ _You can’t let an unclaimed bitch run around smelling like that or she_ will _be claimed in a second._ ’ There was truth in that assessment. InuYasha only wished there weren’t.

InuYasha got up. “Stay here and keep at that,” he told Shippou. The kitsune looked like he wanted to argue but didn’t dare. InuYasha shot him one last warning glare before stepping out of the hut and heading for the well.

‘ _So go get her, baka . . . do you really think she’d be unhappy to see you?_ ’

InuYasha snorted as he leaped above the tree tops. ‘ _Keh! She’s probably furious with me . . . and she is a little scary when she’s that mad . . . . Not that I’m_ afraid _of her. Keh! I’m not!_ ’

As he burst out of the trees and into the clearing by the Bone Eater’s Well, InuYasha dropped to a walk, approaching the structure with a sense of foreboding. ‘ _What do you think she’s gonna do? She can’t say ‘it’ anymore. There’s nothing else she can do . . ._ .’

InuYasha winced. ‘ _Oh, yes there is. She could purify me . . ._ .’

‘ _Keh . . . well, there is that . . ._ .’

InuYasha stopped suddenly, eyes narrowing as a familiar scent came to him on the shifting breeze. Hand dropping to Tetsusaiga’s hilt, he waited for the youkai to come out of hiding. “Show yourself, bitch,” he growled, knowing that she was near enough to hear him.

A husky laugh filled his ears as Ayamakita sauntered out of the foliage. The lynx youkai grinned at him, winking one of her emerald eyes as she raised her hand and blew him a kiss.   “Ah, it’s the sweet little nibble . . . I’ve missed you, InuYasha.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome shoved the last of the supplies into the bag and grunted as she shoved the top down and forced the zipper closed. ‘ _Whew! There! All ready!_ ’ she thought with a small grin as she stepped back to observe her handiwork. She’d gotten extra ramen and even some potato chips for InuYasha, just in case he wasn’t as happy to see her as she was to see him. He did tell her to stay here a week. Waiting two more days, though, seemed pointless when all she was able to accomplish here was irritating the daylights out of her entire family, including her mother. Unable to do more than mope around and jump when she heard a door open or a window rattle, Kagome had single-handedly alienated Souta by the day after her exams.

Grandpa had been dragging things out of one of the store houses, claiming that it needed to be aired out for company since the little room was large enough to turn into a livable space. While digging through dusty boxes of shrine souvenirs, Kagome had ended up in a sneezing fit and had demanded that Grandpa stop keeping old junk around. He hadn’t spoken to her since.

And Mama? Kagome sighed. Souta—the little rat—had let it ‘slip’ that he’d seen InuYasha and Kagome snuggled together one night and that they had been a little too close. Mama had asked in her typical gentle way if there was anything that Kagome wanted to talk about, and Kagome had lost her temper then, too.

All in all, she figured they’d all be much happier if she left now before she ended up being permanently disowned.

Dragging the huge bag off her bed, Kagome made a face as she muscled it over her shoulder and headed for the door. She tromped down the stairs and paused to stick her head into the kitchen where Mrs. Higurashi was busy preparing dinner. “Mama, I’m going back,” she remarked.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled sweetly and set the knife she’d been using to cut up vegetables aside. She hurried to her daughter and hugged her tight, kissing her cheek and smoothing back her bangs. “Be careful, Kagome. I know you always are, but I do still worry.”

Kagome sighed. “I’m sorry . . . I’ve been so mean this time, and—”

“Don’t apologize, darling. It must be stressful, dealing with everything you do every day. You’ll be back for your next exams?”

Kagome nodded and hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mama.”

Mrs. Higurashi gave her a squeeze then stepped back. “You’d better go on. I’ll bet your friends have really missed you.”

Kagome wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about that but she waved at Mrs. Higurashi, smiled, and headed for the doors.

Souta and Grandpa’s voices drifted across the courtyard as she stepped outside. They were obviously still cleaning out the middle storage building on the left side. Kagome frowned. She ought to at least try to tell them both that she was sorry for her horrible behavior, too, even if they weren’t ready to forgive her for it.

“. . . Knock down this wall, and it’ll be decent enough size,” Grandpa said as he examined the wall in question.

Souta shrugged. “I better get this sort of treatment when—”

“Guys?” Kagome interrupted quietly. “I’m going back now. I just wanted to say I’m sorry . . . .”

Grandpa came over and hugged her. “No one shows old men proper respect nowadays. Why should my granddaughter be different? Go on, Kagome!” he joked.

Kagome hugged him back. “I’m sorry, Grandpa.”

Grandpa shrugged. “Go on, Kagome!”

“Forget it, sis,” Souta remarked with a quick wave of his hand. “Better hurry. InuYasha probably doesn’t know what to do without his ‘Kagome-bear’.” He ducked and skittered away before Kagome could catch him, and she growled in frustration as she turned on her heel and stomped out of the building. Souta’s mad-cackling followed her.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“What the fuck do you want?” InuYasha demanded, glowering as the lynx meandered closer.

Pouting prettily, Ayamakita pursed her blood red lips. “I just wanted to talk, InuYasha . . . isn’t that allowed?”

“Keh.”

“Ah, a man of few words . . . .” She stopped, regarding him closely as she tilted her head from side to side. “You’re not a man yet, are you?” She stepped closer, sniffing delicately as InuYasha’s grip tightened on Tetsusaiga. “You’re not . . . you’re still just a pup! How sweet! You mean you’ve not claimed your bitch yet?”

Baring his fangs in an angry snarl, InuYasha growled a warning at the youkai. “Get the hell away from me.”

Ayamakita smiled, bringing her hand up to touch InuYasha’s cheek. He jerked away from her and stepped back. She came forward again. “Aw, the puppy is scared of Aya? I won’t hurt you, I promise—unless, of course, you _want_ me to hurt you . . . .” He drew Tetsusaiga in a blinding flash of movement, leveling it directly at Ayamakita’s chest. Her grin widened. “Want to play, do you? But if you hurt me, then I can’t deliver my message.”

“Like I give a rat’s ass,” he ground out.

Ayamakita’s smile vanished as she blinked at him. “It’s from Katosan. Are you sure you wish to ignore it?”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! I don’t much care what that bastard has to say.” But he sheathed Tetsusaiga and folded his arms together.

“Don’t care?”

“Not particularly, but since he went to the trouble of sending a message, I might as well hear it.”

Satisfied that InuYasha wasn’t going to try to hack her to bits, Ayamakita stepped closer again. InuYasha stood his ground as the lynx youkai leaned toward him.   He schooled his features as he felt the abrasive scrape of her youki dragging over his. He wanted to shove her away. He waited for Katosan’s message.

“Katosan says that he wishes to see you . . . and your bitch . . . at your convenience, of course.”

“Fat fucking chance,” InuYasha said quietly, eyes building intensity behind the cold stare. A hint of recognition filtered over the lynx’s features, as though she had seen such a look, though perhaps in different eyes in another time . . . . “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he taunted.

“Doesn’t everyone have a few skeletons rattling around somewhere?”

InuYasha narrowed his glare on the youkai. “Tell Katosan I’m not bringing Kagome anywhere near him.”

“Tell him yourself.   I was only asked to bring the message this far.”

“You’ve told me what Katosan said. Now get the hell away from me.” InuYasha heard a familiar noise but didn’t turn to look. The breeze shifted, signaling the change in the aura, the presence of light.

“You don’t want me to do that, do you, InuYasha?” She ran her claws against his neck, reaching up to grasp one of his ears in her other hand. He jerked away as she dug her claws into his neck. “Why don’t we see if you can make me purr?” she whispered as she latched onto his ear again.

InuYasha froze as Ayamakita’s lips closed over his. The scent of his own blood registered in his mind even as he reigned in the desire to shove the bitch as far away as he could. Her claws were dangerously close to his jugular. If he moved, she’d kill him . . . . ‘ _Baka! If she kills you, it’s no more than you deserve! Why the hell did you let her get so fucking close to you?_ ’

A smothered gasp, a flash of light—a searing pain so vivid, so fierce that it cut through him like a knife. ‘ _Purified_ . . . ?’

InuYasha fell back and landed hard. Ayamakita was thrown in the opposite direction. With a high-pitched shriek that forced InuYasha to flatten his ears, the lynx youkai vanished in a hazy green light. Whether she was escaping or whether she had been purified, InuYasha couldn’t tell as he forced his eyes open.

He hadn’t been purified completely, but it didn’t matter since the result was the same. He felt as though he were going to be ill, stomach rolling, body aching. His head throbbed as bile rose thick in his throat. Swallowing it back as he willed his mind to clear, InuYasha shook his head then groaned as the pressure inside his skull increased.   He was still in his hanyou form, he realized as he stumbled to his feet. Dazed, confused, he refused to give in to the whispering voices that told him to rest.

Turning to find the source of the explosion, InuYasha groaned and stumbled, eyes trying to focus on the girl that stood before him. “K-Kagome,” he mumbled as he staggered forward. She backed away, shaking her head as her hands rose to cover her lips. Eyes wide, stricken, her face was deathly pale, she uttered a pitiful whine as she blinked away rising tears. “It—wasn’t . . . . It’s –not—Kagome . . . .” InuYasha fell to his knees. Kagome choked out a sob as she turned and ran.

Seconds later the breeze shifted once more as InuYasha pushed himself off the ground again. The air felt void, empty, and he knew that she’d jumped into the well again.

Shaking his head to stave back the beckoning obscurity of oblivion, InuYasha managed to push himself to his feet, managed to force himself to the side of the well before he collapsed again. _‘Must . . . get to . . . Kagome . . ._ .’

And the comforting darkness came crashing down as the pain faded away. Lost in the realm of unconscious, the hanyou slept.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome forced herself up the ladder and out of the well. She ran out of the well-house and shut the doors, forcing the handle of a nearby broom through the handles to keep it closed. Small protection against the hanyou, if he bothered to come looking for her. At least she could put a little more distance between them, if he did. She headed toward the house as tears flowed down her cheeks but stopped. The shrine . . . it was the last place she wanted to be. It would be the first place InuYasha would come looking for her.

Shooting her wavering gaze around in a pathetic attempt to find an escape, Kagome choked back another sob as she stared at the gates that led into the forest—InuYasha’s Forest.

She ran.

Through the gates, into the forest, deep into the trees, across small streams, up hills and across small dips, she ran. ‘ _Don’t think, Kagome . . . . Don’t think about what you saw . . ._.’

Choking out a hysterical laugh, she jammed the back of her hand against her mouth. ‘ _Don’t think . . . don’t remember . . . and don’t breathe . . . I’m such a fool!_ ’

Vindictive, hateful, the image wouldn’t go away. The lynx youkai with one hand on his neck, the other on his ear— _her_ ear—and he stood there, letting her kiss him, as though Kagome didn’t mean a damn thing to him, as if he hadn’t made her any promises at all . . . . A rage had built inside her, an uncontrollable, disgusting feeling, that she’d been used, that she’d been pushed aside—that she didn’t matter at all. It had culminated in the blast of energy that had shot out of her body, out of her heart. Yet in those last few seconds when she knew that her body was reacting with a will of its own, she’d kept thinking, _‘I love him . . . I love him . . . ._ ’ Maybe that was the reason he’d been able to get up.

As suddenly as she had started to run, Kagome stopped. Dropping to her knees under the shelter of a magnolia tree, Kagome wept. Screaming, raging, begging for someone to explain it all to her, Kagome called out time and again, only to be answered by the silence of the forest and the pain in her soul. Angry tears gave way to bitter sobs that shook her entire body until her very bones ached. Every time she thought about what she’d seen, she felt a little more nauseous. With every wave of nausea came another round of sobs.

And strangely, she could feel her heart cracking, crumbling, shattering, falling away one shard at a time, and those shards dug into her. Every tear that fell was a piece of her heart. How much more was left to break?

The call of the evening birds registered in her mind. Kagome’s body hurt from hours of sobbing. Her eyes hurt from weeping out the fragments of her heart. Her mind hurt from the weight of the image that she couldn’t shake. But her heart . . . . It was incongruously numb.

‘ _InuYasha didn’t follow me . . . ._ ’ Kagome thought with a humorless laugh that might have been a sob, if she had any tears left. She fell into a dreamless slumber as the moon rose over the trees.

 

 

 

 

 


	64. Beautiful

InuYasha awoke to an ache in his head that made him feel like he was going to be sick. Slowly opening his eyes, he gazed around at the empty meadow as the evening creatures stirred to life in the shadows. ‘ _What . . . happened?_ ’

With a low groan, vague representations came filtering back to him. The well . . . Ayamakita . . . Katosan’s message . . . that kiss . . . _Kagome_.

“Kagome,” he muttered, struggling to sit up as he dragged the back of his hand over his lips, trying to wipe the feel of the lynx youkai from his mouth. Grimacing, InuYasha rubbed his temple and pushed himself up against the side of the well. ‘ _Gotta . . . get to Kagome . . ._ ’

Willing the world to stop spinning around him, InuYasha managed to push aside the nausea. Pure determination got him to his feet, and, blinking back the distorted fuzziness that impaired his vision, he closed his eyes and pushed himself over the wall. He dropped into the well as the portal opened beneath him.

‘ _Don’t hate me, Kagome . . . just listen to me . . . what the hell have I done?_ ’

He landed gently at the bottom of the well as the pink light of the time slip faded, and he sighed. There wasn’t any way he’d be able to leap out of the well. With a grimace brought on by disgust as much as it was by pain, InuYasha pulled himself up the ladder and out of the well.

It took him all of five seconds to figure out that he’d been locked into the well-house somehow. With a frustrated snarl, he threw his shoulder against the doors a few times, wincing as the jarring action hurt his entire body. ‘ _Damn it, wench! Did you do this?_ ’

He sighed. Could he blame her? She’d seen him with that bitch smashed against him, and no matter how many times he told himself that she would have killed him if he’d tried to push her away, it sounded weak and pitiful. There was no way Kagome would believe that . . .

InuYasha stared at the doors for a minute, wondering exactly how much trouble he’d be in for doing what he was contemplating. ‘ _Who the fuck cares? I’ve gotta get to Kagome . . . I’ve got to make her understand . . ._ ’ Mumbling a quick prayer that no one was standing on the other side of the doors, InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga. The blade had completely lost any traces of the blue sheen. He winced as the wind wrapped around it, and he raised it over his head. “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” he bellowed as he brought Tetsusaiga slamming down on the wooden steps.   The Wind Scar flashed out, shot across the plank floor, smashed into the doors, and threw them wide open.

Dropping Tetsusaiga back into the sheath with a heavy sigh, InuYasha stumbled out of the well-house and into the courtyard. Vertigo muddled his mind, and he had to sit down for a minute to shake it off.

Sniffing the air as he stood back up, InuYasha frowned. _‘Kagome’s not here . . . ?_ ’ He wandered around the courtyard, trying to catch her scent. Stopping near the gates at the back of the property, InuYasha understood. ‘ _She’s gone into the forest?_ ’

“Damn it,” he muttered as he lurched forward, into the forest . . . toward Kagome.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome awoke slowly, head thick, clouded, and she stared at the forest around her with a puzzled frown. Slowly the memories came back to her, the reasons why she was here . . . why she felt so alone. Tears didn’t come even though her eyes ached and burned. Throat tightening and breathing in harsh gasps, she wanted to cry all over again. She just . . . couldn’t.

InuYasha, in the arms of that lynx youkai . . . she held him like she had a _right_ to do that. Hand cradled against InuYasha’s neck, fingers twined around the ear that Kagome adored . . . She was even _purring_ , kissing the lips that Kagome had thought were hers . . .

A whine, a sob, a dry, rasping cry was torn from her, and still she couldn’t shed a tear. The ache deep inside her was a strange thing. Hollow and empty, Kagome didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse. Dulled pain with the stabbing vindictiveness of a blunt knife, she clutched her chest, suddenly clasped the Shikon no Tama tightly. Squeezing her eyes shut, willing tears to come, Kagome gasped and tried to push the distorted images from her mind. ‘ _It hurts,_ ’ she whimpered. ‘ _Why does it have to hurt like this?_ ’

But the memories she wanted to forget crushed her, squeezed her, drew more pain from an already devastated soul. Things from the very beginning: InuYasha, pinned to Goshinboku, suspended in time by Kikyou’s sacred arrow . . . Shippou’s unforgettable appearance in his floating pink form . . . Miroku literally sweeping her off her feet in his quest to steal the Shikon no Kakera . . . Sango and her pain . . . Kikyou and her soul collectors . . . battling Naraku . . . all of them, and in all of the memories, InuYasha was a constant.

She wanted to be angry. She wanted to yell and scream and wail and sob. She couldn’t do any of it. As though emotion, itself, was just beyond her reach, all she felt was the dull ache and the damning thought that InuYasha had betrayed her. ‘ _And the worst part_ ,’ she realized with a bitter laugh, an incredulous sense of self-disgust, ‘ _is that I still . . . why do I still love him?_ ’

A low moan, a harsh, savage sound borne of utter despair welled up in her. Forced to the surface by the pain that took no prisoners, it burst from her in the stillness of the night. No answer came to her. No voices spoke comforting words. Alone in the darkness, alone with her relentless memories, Kagome squeezed her eyes closed once more, fighting against the encompassing desire to give up, to surrender herself to the melancholy.

“InuYasha . . .” she whispered, eyes still closed, “where are you?”

“Kagome.”

Her sharp gasp echoed off the surrounding trees as her eyes shot open. He leaned against a tree, head back. She couldn’t see his face, but his eyes glowed, bright yet sad, and Kagome sat up slowly as she stared. The brightness looked false, strange, like diamonds in the moonlight. ‘ _He’s . . . got tears in his eyes_ ,’ she realized slowly.

Another pain shot through her chest, through the void where her heart should have been. ‘ _I don’t care! I don’t_ want _to care!_ ’ But the tears standing in his eyes were enough to remind Kagome’s heart that it was there, and that it was okay to cry. With a soft sob, her chin dropped, her gaze fell as tears blurred her vision, as pain squeezed the heart she didn’t want.

The shuffle of his feet on the ground, as though he couldn’t manage to lift them. He dropped to his knees before her, tentatively reached out, fumbled as he lifted her chin, as he wiped her tears with his shaking hands. “Don’t cry,” he whispered. “Hate me, or yell at me, or purify me again . . . I don’t care . . . Kagome, just please don’t cry . . .”

Shaking her head, Kagome tried to stop crying. The harder she tried, the more tears came. “I can’t hate you . . . and I can’t yell . . . and I didn’t mean to . . . _why?_ ” Choking back another sob, she dared to life her gaze to meet his. “Why couldn’t you just tell me?”

“It wasn’t . . . I didn’t . . .” he trailed off with a sigh. Hands dropping to the ground before him, his ears flattened as his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry.”

She reached out to lift his chin, suddenly needing to look him in the eye. If he was sorry . . . if he was really sorry . . . couldn’t she forgive him then? When she touched him, though, she jerked back. His face was saturated with sweat, dripping off his chin, down his neck.

With a soft sob, it made sense. The reason he’d waited so long wasn’t because he hadn’t cared. He’d gotten more of a blast from the purification than she had realized. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out her favorite white kerchief, and he let her wipe the perspiration from his face and neck. “I didn’t mean to . . . it was an accident . . .” she whispered, her gaze dropping to the damp and rumpled kerchief. Her gaze narrowed as she stared. Holding up the cloth in the dim moonlight, the dark blotches on the pristine fabric made her wince. “Blood? Where are you bleeding? Did I . . . ?”

“It wasn’t you,” he assured her quietly. “She dug her claws into me.”

Kagome’s mind slowed as her eyes flew to meet his. A spark of hope, a wild yearning flared to life. Cautious, precarious but still giving her hope, Kagome swallowed hard before she dared to ask, “That’s why you let her kiss you?”

His gaze fell away, and he sighed. “Sounds so fucking stupid. I let her get too close.” His lips moved though words didn’t come. He sighed again and shook his head. “I just wanted to tell you . . . I’m sorry.” Using Tetsusaiga to push himself to his feet, InuYasha turned to go.

“Where are you going?”

She winced as he leaned heavily on the sword. “I’d rather die than hurt you anymore,” he admitted softly. “I’m going back. I’ll tell everyone what I . . . What I did . . . Goodbye, Kagome.”

Watching him go, Kagome shot to her feet. The rawness in his tone cut through her. She tried to call after him once, but her voice couldn’t get past the swelling in her throat. She ran after him, cutting him off. “No,” she whispered just before she threw herself against him, locking her arms around him before he could protest. “You can’t leave,” she choked out. “You promised! You promised you’d protect me!”

“Kagome . . .”

“Just don’t . . . don’t push me away again,” she begged as she held to him. “Please . . .”

He sighed. “You don’t hate me?” he asked quietly.

She leaned back. “No . . . of course not.”

InuYasha didn’t look convinced but he nodded. “Come on. I’ll take you back.”

He took her hand and started forward again. She didn’t move. “I don’t want to go back yet.”   He nodded and sat down under a tree, pulling Kagome down next to him. She leaned her head against his chest. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again.

“Keh,” he muttered, sleepiness creeping into his tone. “Don’t apologize. Hear me, wench? I’ll tweak your nose if you do.”

She smiled slightly, enjoying the feel of his arms around her, the arms she’d thought she’d never feel again. She sat up straighter and tugged at his shoulders until he complied, laying his head in her lap as she gently rubbed his ears. Within moments the sound of his contented rumbling filled the air. ‘ _I never should have doubted you . . . and even if you don’t want to hear it, I really am sorry . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha awoke in the stillness just before dawn. Not a whisper of a breeze, not the chirp of a bird, not even the slosh of the pond that he knew was near could disturb the quiet. He sat up slowly as Kagome’s hands fell away from his ears. She was slumped against the tree, and he flinched as he gently pulled her into his arms. She sighed but didn’t wake as he adjusted her against his chest.

He felt surprisingly good, considering. Almost completely rejuvenated, actually. He had a hunch that it had everything to do with the young woman in his arms and nothing at all to do with the short nap he’d managed to get. _‘I promised to protect you, didn’t I? That means more than just cutting down youkai that come after the jewel, and more than making sure you’ve got food every night. To protect you means that I have to love you, too, doesn’t it?_ ’ he thought as he smoothed back her hair. ‘ _I think I can do that._ ’ He grinned.

He made a face. ‘ _Baka . . . you reek of that youkai bitch_.’ InuYasha sighed. Though he didn’t want to do it, InuYasha gently moved Kagome onto the ground and, after kissing her cheek, he got up and ran off toward the pond.

His haori and undershirt smelled bad, too, InuYasha decided with a grimace. With a sigh, he stripped off his clothes and stretched before swiping up his shirts and striding into the cool water. He used a couple of smooth rocks to wash the garments before hurling them back to the shore then dove under the water and swam the width of the pond.

Twenty laps later, InuYasha stood and wiped the water out of his face. ‘ _Wonder if sneaky wench is awake yet?_ ’ He stretched once more and headed back to the shore. Dragging his pants back on, he frowned at the still-wet shirts. Kagome had seen him without his shirt too many times to count. Once more wouldn’t kill her . . . He grinned and swiped up the shirts before heading back to the tree where he’d left her.

Kagome hadn’t moved at all. In the early morning light, her skin looked almost silvery, luminous. He stared at her for a few moments. She didn’t move. ‘ _All right_ ,’ he thought with an inward sigh. ‘ _She asked for it_ . . .’

Shaking his head as vigorously as he could, InuYasha could feel the water flying off his hair. The fabricated wind dried him almost instantly, and by the time he was finished, Kagome had her eyes open and her hands raised to shield her face from the flying water. “InuYasha!” she protested in a sleepy voice. “You’re so rude.”

He didn’t miss her little smile. “Oh, so you did decide to wake up. I was starting to think you were dead, wench.”

“Hmm, no such luck,” she murmured as she sat up and stifled a yawn. “Why are you all wet?”

“Because,” he admitted with a grimace. “I needed a bath.”

She stared at him a moment then leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with mischief. She sniffed then wrinkled her nose. “Didn’t you use soap?”

“ _What?_ ”

She backed away as he rose up on his hands and knees to come after her. “I asked if you used soap,” she repeated.

He prowled closer. “Are you saying that I _stink_ , wench?”

“I didn’t say any such thing,” she argued as she pushed herself backward.

“Keh!”

“I didn’t!” she insisted. Her hand got tangled with a tree root, and she caught herself—but not before InuYasha lunged forward, catching her around the waist and pulling her up against him, against his chest. She gasped as she caught herself with her hands against his bare chest. He moaned and fell back.   The intensity glowing in her eyes made his breath catch. Her scent shifted so quickly that InuYasha barely had time to register the difference before she dropped her lips to his throat, covering the punctures and scratches—the lingering reminders of the youkai’s claws. He let his head fall to the side, allowing Kagome to dominate in this. Her fragrance shifted, twisted, entwined with his senses, forged itself upon his brain as he memorized the feel of her lips on his skin.

Her mouth opened against him, hot breath burning against the raw scratches. Wet kisses, the scrape of teeth, as she took her time, kissing every wound, healing him with her touch.   Her hands pressed against his chest, kneaded the muscles that rippled as he fought to stay still. Losing that battle, reveling in the tactile emotion, he dragged his claws against the silken flesh of her sides, pushing up her blouse to reveal her flushed skin beneath.

Tilting her face up with his index finger hooked under her chin, he stared into her eyes for a moment, her lips quivering, darkened from kissing. “Kagome,” he forced himself to say, forced himself to tell her before she succeeded in making him forget everything else. “You know . . . this is forever.”

Her lips moved, her heart thumped so hard that he could feel it against his chest. In the end, she couldn’t find her voice. All she could do was nod.

As if that was what he had been waiting to hear, he caught her around her neck, pulled her down to meet him. Hunger met with hunger, a burning tide of desire ran through him with unyielding abandon. She met him with an equal fervor, her tongue delving into his mouth, searching him out, leaving him breathless.

Every defense he’d ever constructed, every barrier that had ever been used, Kagome tore them down. The woman he thought was so gentle, so kind, destroyed them all with the brush of her fingers, with her soft sighs against him. The vulnerability she uncovered was a beautiful thing. The feeling of being completely at her mercy didn’t frighten him, didn’t compel him to hide himself away. He wanted to give her the world. The only thing he had to give her was his heart, and that had been hers long ago. Somehow Kagome believed that was enough . . .

Her body called to his, pressed against his. The yearning, the wanting, the dreaming, and the burning intensified and released, constricted and stretched. Time and again, she ran her hands up and down his chest, and each time, he felt like he was dying. His youkai wanted her, needed her. His human heart tempered his will.

Rolling her gently onto her back, InuYasha leaned away to work the buttons on her blouse. Fumbling with fingers that trembled too much to cooperate, InuYasha growled as one of the delicate buttons popped off. Kagome giggled softly and tried to help him. Her hands were shaking, too, and he slapped them away. ‘ _Mine_ ,’ his youkai growled. He shook his head quickly. How stupid . . . Kagome was just trying to help . . .

With a frustrated grimace, InuYasha shot her a quick glance as he split the front of her blouse with one claw. She gasped as the humor dissipated only to be replaced by a deeper emotion, one that InuYasha didn’t fully understand. Kagome rose up on her hands, letting the blouse fall off her shoulders. He stared at her as he forgot to breathe again. Blood rushing through is body as his youkai goaded him to claim her, InuYasha closed his eyes and sat up, trying to forget how she looked, trying to push aside the expression in her gaze. If he could do that, then he had a chance to keep control of himself. Fighting back the youkai blood that fought so desperately to take over, InuYasha struggled to find the human in him, for the tenderness that she deserved, for the love that he wanted her to have.

The soft rustle of fabric, the whisper of air as the material fell away from her. He knew what she was doing without opening his eyes.   “InuYasha.” He shook his head quickly, a low whine escaping as she called his name again. The scent of her was magnified, radiating from her bare skin. The press of her body against his wrung a growl from the depths of his soul. She crawled onto his lap, straddling his hips as she held him, kissed his jaw, surrounded him in her aura. He sought out her lips without opening his eyes, pulling her against him as the heat that siphoned through his body exploded in his brain.

“Sneaky wench,” he mumbled between kisses. She shuddered under his claws, arched against him as her body reacted with a will of its own. “You’re making this difficult.”

“Hmm? How?”

He groaned and kissed her, nibbling at her lower lip as she wrapped her hands around him, gently rubbing the base of his neck, as though she understood the turmoil within him, she subdued his youkai blood without diminishing his desire for her. Tilting her head back, InuYasha brought her closer, attacking her neck with a brutal tenderness, a burning calm. A weak growl reverberated in her throat, tickling his lips. He opened his mouth against her, tasted her flesh, nipped at her as she gasped. Supporting her neck in the cradle of his palm, InuYasha let his other hand drag down, over her shoulder, along her collarbone, against the rising swell of her breast. Closing his palm over her, she cried out softly as she swelled under his touch, her body suddenly weakening in his arms.

He lay her down and fumbled with the ties on his pants as he stood. Finally struggling out of them without tearing them to shreds, he glanced back at Kagome only to find her staring at him. Solemn, serious, her eyes were shining and bright, awash with a curious mix of passion and wonder. “You’re beautiful,” she whispered.

“Keh,” he muttered as he stretched out beside her. Pushing the hair out of her face, he kissed her gently, tenderly, softly, a whisper of a kiss that she understood.

Leaning over her, pressing kisses against her breasts, lathing her flesh with his mouth, Kagome whimpered, tossing her head back and forth as she mumbled incoherent words. The human part of him told him to take his time, to memorize her body, her reactions, everything about her. His youkai blood still whispered to him. He ignored it.

Kagome was lost in a wash of emotion, the lure of the unknown unfurling as an electric lethargy seeped into her bones. As though her body couldn’t move without his dictates, she was powerless to do more than lay there while he took his time exploring her. She tried to tell him what she wanted. She tried to ask him to make her stop aching. The ache became a burn, the burn swelled into a hunger, and the hunger resonated with the beat of his heart. Gentle hands kneaded her skin but didn’t come close to the place where the pulse culminated.

Driving against him didn’t work. Tugging on his ears didn’t faze him. Digging her fingernails into his shoulders went unnoticed.   She felt like crying in frustration even as he discovered sensations hidden in places she hadn’t thought of. Wet kisses against the crook of her elbow sent shockwaves up her arms and through her body, adding to the tightness that wound itself around her center. Careful claws grazing the backs of her knees caused her bones to dissolve under her skin. Palms stroking her hips brought her arching off the ground with a soft hiss, and all of the touches, the kisses, the caresses, merged together into an ache that consumed her.

He pressed kisses down her belly, along the hollow of her hipbones. She cried out again, rasping out the words that had eluded her for so long. “Please,” she gasped. “I . . . need . . .”

And suddenly his body was gliding over hers, his skin stroking hers, her body erupting in a conflagration of gooseflesh and violent shivers. He stopped and leaned on his elbows, supporting his weight as he stared at her.   “Kagome . . . are you sure?”

She blinked to clear her vision as she gaze at his serious face. Tears rose behind her eyes, tears that he would care enough to ask her now, after she’d already given him her answer time and again. “Forever.”

InuYasha didn’t need to hear anything else. Lips against hers, he smothered her moan as he slowly pressed his body into hers. That incessant throb burgeoned, escalated as he slowly pressed his hips against her. Lifting her hips instinctively, she tore her mouth away, gasping for breath as her body stretched around him. A million nerves centered around him, sending ripples through her, a completeness that still felt somehow empty. The illusion of need, the crush of desire, the culmination of absolute love fell on her, left her weak and trembling even as he raised her up to a time and a place where beauty was a corporeal thing, and it all met in InuYasha’s gaze.

She felt the barrier inside her as he stilled his movement. The reluctance on his features brought her hands to his cheeks, a surge in her heart as she tried to understand what stopped him. She wanted him, all of him, needed him to help her because she wasn’t sure if she could. Arching her back, lifting her hips, rising against him as a small pressure gave. A sudden gush of liquid heat seared through her as she held him, kissed him, provoked a new kind of fire that goaded her further, demanding and relentless, frightening and overwhelming, intoxicating and wanton. He trembled against her, a soft whine torn from him as his muscles strained, as his body tensed. A fine sheen of sweat broke over his brow, and he moaned as Kagome shifted her hips, reveling in the strange new sensation that crashed over her in wave after tumultuous wave.

“Damn it, wench,” he growled jaw clenched in his epicurean efforts to restrain himself. “Stop moving.”

“But—”

Dropping his mouth against her throat, he nipped her gently with his fangs. She understood that for what it was: tender censure, and even though she didn’t want to comply, her body responded to his dominance. Her own breathing was rushed, shallow, and she shuddered under him, around him. She felt like she was burning, feverish. The wash of emptiness grew, as though there was a part of her that he had taken, a part she needed and wanted.

Leaning on one arm, he reached back, cradled her leg, eased out of her with such a languor such a maddening slowness, that she cried out again. Her mouth was dry, she couldn’t speak, but the bitter disappointment that enveloped her was impossible to ignore. ‘ _No!_ ’ her mind screamed, ‘ _Don’t leave me! Not now . . ._ ’

He growled, forced her to open her eyes, to look at him. The liquid gold of his gaze pierced the fog around her mind, burned it away like the sun.   Fierce, determined, there was something else, something she couldn’t define. As though he was trying to see into her mind, to know what it was she thought, as though whatever it was he saw pleased him. She couldn’t dwell on it. He pushed against her again, and she felt her eyes closing as she gave herself up to pure sensation.

His body fed on hers, dispelling the ache yet deepening the need. The understated power in his very being broke against her, as though she had the ability to temper him. One feeling passed into another, a beautiful spiral, a convergent circle. The sphere of time where they existed precluded intrusion. She lifted her body only to be met by his thrusts, his growls softened into the rumble that soothed her even as his body drove her higher. Gaining momentum, unleashing the landslide, the torrent of touch, of feel, became a fissure of heat and energy.

He drove her down, subdued her, then goaded her higher, cradled by his love as he promised her the world with his unspoken words. A slow ache, a constant pressure, a visceral need that built. Slowly at first but quickening with their movements, she balanced on the cusp of something both exhilarating and frightening, something that she wanted but was afraid to reach out to take.

His mouth fell over hers as she cried out, a final burst that forced both of them into the vortex. Kissing her as he quaked in her arms, kissing him as she tumbled off the precipice, into the darkness that suddenly filled with light. The culmination of their silent claim on one another was complete, and yet . . .

And yet something else was happening, too. InuYasha collapsed against her heart, breathing in ragged gulps of air. Kagome opened her eyes slowly. Something was whispering her name. She gasped softly, eyes widening as she stared, unable to comprehend what was happening, unable to grasp what it meant. “InuYasha?” she whispered. “What—” He gasped, too, as he saw it.

The Shikon no Tama hovered over them both. Having somehow escaped the chain that held it on her, the jewel seemed to be swirling, opalescent, shimmering, the traces of pink were gone. It exploded in a flash of pure light, scattering glittering sparkles over them both. ‘ _Midoriko’s blessing?_ ’ Kagome mused. It had been the completion of the bond between InuYasha and herself that had ultimately brought the clarity needed to purify the jewel . . .

Suddenly, InuYasha’s arms tightened around her. Eyes closed tightly, he held her with a ferocity, a fear so strong that she could almost smell it. Pushing back his damp bangs, stroking his cheeks, Kagome tried to reassure him. “What is it?” she finally asked.

He shook his head stubbornly. “If I . . . if I let go, I’ll disappear,” he whispered. “I . . . not alone, Kagome . . . I can’t go back without you.”

She shifted to draw him closer, the movement a reminder that they were still joined. A delicious shiver ran up her spine, through her limbs. She tried to ignore it. “I don’t think you will,” she remarked softly. “I think . . . I think that was a sign that we are supposed to be together.”

Forcing himself to lift his head, to look into her eyes, he saw her absolute faith, her conviction, her belief. “Kagome . . .”

She smiled. Covered in glittery dust from the Shikon no Tama, he blinked at her, silently asking for her reassurances. She hugged him, kissed him, nuzzled against his cheek. Slowly the tension eased out of him, draining away as he rolled onto his back. Dragging her onto his chest, he wrapped her in the protection of his embrace. Kagome sighed, lulled by the beat of his heart under her ear.

“Should we go back? Tell the others what happened?”

“In awhile,” he agreed.

“But the jewel was purified . . .”

“And I’m exhausted. The jewel will still have been purified in an hour or two.”

“But—”

“Go to sleep, wench,” he growled though she could discern the contentment underlying his tone. “You wore me out.”

“I didn’t—”

He yawned. “You can’t argue with your mate, I told you.”

‘ _Mate . . ._ ’ Kagome grinned and closed her eyes. ‘ _Just this once, InuYasha . . . I’ll let you win . . ._ ’

 

 

 

 

 


	65. Aoirotoku

Sesshoumaru leafed through the newspaper. Leikizu idly sipped her morning tea with a small smile as she stared at her mate. “Why don’t you put that away and pay some attention to your mate?” she asked, arching her eyebrows as she stared at the youkai.

Sesshoumaru folded down the edge of the paper and peered over it. “Let me finish the business section.”

Leikizu uttered a low noise that sounded like, ‘hrumph’ as she stood and came around the table, deliberately tugging the paper out of her husband’s hands. “The business section? Is that more interesting than I am?”

Sesshoumaru gave up gracefully, leaning back to accommodate his wife. She sat down and draped her arms around his neck. “You have never possessed an ounce of patience, Lei. You know this.”

She grinned. “Not when it comes to you. Aren’t you glad?”

Sesshoumaru was about to answer. The lazy smile that had spread over his features suddenly disappeared as his back straightened and he looked away, toward the windows and the world beyond.

Leikizu stood and wandered over to those windows with a thoughtful frown. “It’s happened.”

Following his wife’s example, Sesshoumaru came to stand beside her. A small nod, an indiscernible shift in his gaze. ‘ _So . . . it is done . . ._ .’

“Did you feel it?”

Sesshoumaru didn’t answer right away. As though he needed a few minutes to assimilate the shifting memories, the youkai shook his head slightly and sighed.

“Well?”

Meeting his wife’s concerned gaze, Sesshoumaru nodded once. “It is still too soon to tell.”

“What will you do now?”

“If I know that baka, he’ll come to me.”

Leikizu leaned up, kissed Sesshoumaru’s cheek. “And will you tell him the entire tale?”

He shrugged almost carelessly though his eyes remained solemn. “When and if he needs to know . . . .”

 

 

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Kagome awoke to soft, feathery strokes as InuYasha traced little circles on her shoulder. Craning her neck back to look at him, she grinned when she saw that he still had his eyes closed though he didn’t seem to be asleep. “About time you woke up, wench,” he grumbled as he popped an eye open to gaze at her.

She flushed, very aware that they were both still very naked. “You should have woken me up earlier,” she remarked.

“Keh.” Wrapping her hair around his hand, he brought a handful to his nose and breathed deep. “Happy birthday. I forgot to say it earlier.”

“You remembered?”

He flushed and scowled. “I’m not stupid,” he grumbled.

“I didn’t think you were.”

“Besides, you had such a fit last year when no one remembered you said ‘it’ too many times to count.”

“I said ‘it’ because you wouldn’t let Shippou have any of the cake I brought back,” she countered, “and then you thumped him quite a few times.”

She pinched him when he smiled proudly. He tweaked her nose. She returned the gesture before she snuggled against him again. InuYasha tightened his arms around her. “Oi! You can’t tweak me, wench!”

With a giggle, Kagome covered her nose with her hand before he could tweak her again. He gave up with a loud snort. Her expression turned serious as the memory of the Shikon no Tama floating above them just before it purified flashed through her mind. “Do you think the jewel being purified changed anything?” she finally asked, giving voice to her own concerns.

“I dunno . . . maybe the old woman or Miroku might.”

She sighed. As loathe as she was to end the moment, telling the others about the jewel took precedence. Still she allowed herself a few more minutes of bliss since InuYasha didn’t seem to be in any real hurry for her to move, either.

“We, uh, should go, then,” he said, his voice dropping in timbre, a certain huskiness creeping into his tone.

“InuYasha?” Pushing herself up on her elbows brought closer contact in other areas. He moaned softly then deliberately dumped her off of his chest as he shot to his feet to retrieve his pants. “Hey!” she complained.

He tossed his now-dry haori at her. “Cover . . . _that_ , wench,” he remarked, waving his hand at her as his cheeks reddened.

Casting him a disgruntled stare, Kagome complied though she did take her time. “If you’d have let me help you, I wouldn’t have to borrow this,” she remarked.

“Keh.”

She stood up and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against his back. “Thank you.”

He turned his head to peek back at her. “For what?”

She shrugged and squeezed him. “For being you.”

He smiled almost bashfully then snorted. “Keh. Come on, wench.” Grabbing Tetsusaiga in one hand and Kagome’s hand in the other, he stopped long enough for her to retrieve her clothes before they walked back through the forest.

Checking her watch, Kagome grimaced. Nearly four in the afternoon . . . it seemed like the day had slipped past without their notice. She grinned. ‘ _Well, if you have to lose track of time, that’s a good way to do it . . ._ .’

He opened the gate for her and waited for her to walk through before he followed. Kagome’s smile disappeared as she stared in shock at the well-house. The doors were hanging in tatters, as though they’d been shredded . . . or hit by another powerful strike. “InuYasha . . . did you do that?” she asked quietly.

“Oh, uh, yeah . . . .” he began nervously.

“InuYasha . . . .”

Suddenly he snorted. “Keh! You shouldn’t have locked me in there.”

At that reminder, Kagome winced. She’d forgotten about the broom. Still . . . . “What did you do to it?”

“. . . Kaze no Kizu,” he mumbled. “I wouldn’t have if I could have gotten out of there.”

Kagome shook her head, wondering just how irritated her mother was going to be about it. “Let me go change,” she said, “then we can go back.”

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue. Then he shrugged and followed her toward the shrine house.

“Kagome!” Mrs. Higurashi greeted as she shut off the vacuum cleaner. Staring at her daughter’s clothes with raised-eyebrows, she didn’t comment though she looked like she wanted to. “Happy birthday, dear! What brings the two of you back so soon? And would either of you know what, exactly, happened to the well-house doors?”

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably as Kagome sighed. “InuYasha did that, but it was my fault. I barred the door.”

“I see . . . Well, I’m glad to see that you two have obviously cleared up your differences. By the way, Kagome . . . why are you wearing InuYasha’s haori?”

“My shirt ripped,” she blurted quickly, trying to stave back the hot flush that shot to the fore. “I just stopped in to change, is all . . . .”

Mrs. Higurashi nodded as she stepped forward to pull a dry leaf out of Kagome’s hair. “How about I draw you a nice, hot bath?”

Kagome and InuYasha exchanged quick looks. “Mama, the Shikon no Tama was purified. We’ve got to hurry back and see if anything’s been affected by it.”

Mrs. Higurashi smiled. “All right. Why don’t you come with me, InuYasha? You look like you could use something to eat.”

InuYasha didn’t look like he was going to follow her. Kagome frowned at him. Rolling his eyes, he stomped off after Mrs. Higurashi as Kagome headed for the stairs.

It didn’t take long for her to change into fresh clothes. Pausing long enough to stare out her window, Kagome frowned. Her grandfather was going all-out on the guest house. The plumber had arrived, so obviously they were putting in some sort of bathroom, too? ‘ _Strange_.’ With a sigh, Kagome quickly brushed her hair then looked around for her backpack. ‘ _Oh, duh! I dropped it after I got out of the well in the past . . . ._ ’ She shrugged. She’d just retrieve it when they got there.

Pausing a moment, Kagome stared at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t look any different. ‘ _Mates_.’ She smiled. The sound of that made her happy. Laughing at her own crazy thoughts, Kagome yanked her door open and hurried down the hallway toward the stairs.

 

 

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“Would you care for something to drink?”

InuYasha shook his head as he caught himself staring through the doorway toward the stairs.

“Ramen,” Mrs. Higurashi said with a thoughtful smile. “Would that be better?”

He shifted his eyes to the side to glance at the woman. “All right,” he agreed slowly. Why did he have the feeling he was being set up for something?

Mrs. Higurashi said nothing as she prepared a cup of the modern wonder for him. InuYasha drummed his claws on the counter impatiently as he wished that Kagome would speed it up. Mrs. Higurashi set the cup of ramen on the table with utensils.

He sat down and started to eat.

“You left the gate open last night when you went after my daughter,” Mrs. Higurashi remarked quietly.

InuYasha nearly choked on his noodles. “You . . . knew?”

Mrs. Higurashi smiled almost sadly. “I saw Kagome when she returned. She was upset. My first thought was that I should follow her . . . but Kagome’s at an age now where mamas have little say in their daughters’ decisions, and . . . and they don’t always like to tell their mothers what is going on. I was surprised that it took you so long to come after her.”

He didn’t miss the subtle censure in her voice. “I couldn’t. I wanted to . . . .”

She nodded. “I saw. Frankly I was surprised that you managed to go after her at all. Care to tell me what happened?”

He couldn’t help the panic that swept over his features. It was one thing, to have finally claimed Kagome as his mate. It was something completely different to admit as much to her mother . . . . “I—we—uhh—”

She held her hand up to stop him. “Not _after_ you found her . . . I meant, what happened to put you in such a state as you were in last night. We can cover the rest of it after you tell me why my daughter came home so upset.”

He winced. “She . . . she saw a lynx youkai kiss me. The lynx had her claws in my neck, and . . . . It was stupid.” Why did the entire situation sound even more stupid when he was trying to explain it to Kagome’s mother? Unconsciously, he rubbed his throat where the bitch had dug her claws into him. The injuries were closed. He wasn’t sure if that was because of his ability to heal so quickly or because of Kagome . . . . He had a feeling it was the latter.

“I take it Kagome forgave you.”

He nodded, unable to meet Mrs. Higurashi’s knowing look.

She sighed. “InuYasha . . . I don’t know what happened between the two of you in the forest, though I have a fair guess, given your discomfort as well as her behavior since the two of you returned. I feel like it’s something I’m probably better off not asking, for my own peace of mind. I won’t ask that you don’t touch her. As much as I hate to admit it, Kagome’s old enough to make her own choices. What I will ask, though, is that you don’t hurt her, and that you don’t dishonor her. I don’t think that’s too much of a problem, either. I know my daughter, and I know how she feels about you, and I think that you return her feelings.”

Again he nodded, trying not to blush under Mrs. Higurashi’s frank gaze.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed. “Just . . . one thing?”

Why did he have a feeling that this last ‘one thing’ was potentially worse than the rest of what she’d already said? He swallowed hard and waited.

“Would you promise you’ll be careful?  Kagome’s still in school, and the two of you aren’t married . . . .”

InuYasha frowned, having not quite grasped Mrs. Higurashi’s meaning. “Be careful?” he repeated. “Careful of what?” Damn, he’d just spent months being ‘careful’. He was always ‘careful’ with her! He’d pretty nearly driven himself and her insane with his determination to be ‘careful’! What did her mother think? That he’d woke up this morning and suddenly decided that Kagome might as well be his mate since she was always hanging around? ‘ _Keh, baka! Her mother just doesn’t understand. Maybe she’s not trying to offend you so much as she is trying to protect Kagome . . . like you do ._ . . .’

“You think I’d hurt her?” he demanded, unable to keep the irritation out of his tone, the incredulity that, after all this time, Mrs. Higurashi could doubt his intentions toward Kagome. “She’s my _mate_. No one will _ever_ hurt her.”

“What does that mean to you, InuYasha, that she is your mate?”

“Mama!” Kagome gasped as she stepped into the kitchen. Her face was almost as red as the fire rat haori she held in her arms.

Mrs. Higurashi shot her daughter a pointed look. “It’s true. I was just saying that I don’t think either of you is ready for children.”

“ _Pups?_ ” InuYasha choked out as his face shot up in mortified color. “You were talking about _pups?_ ”

Mrs. Higurashi looked duly confused. “What did you think I meant when I asked that you be careful?”

“ _Mama!_ ” Kagome complained. InuYasha stood abruptly and stomped out of the kitchen.

Mrs. Higurashi watched InuYasha’s rushed departure before she directed her words at her daughter. “Kagome, I’m trying to be understanding. I know that he’s hanyou, so his entire outlook on marriage is probably quite different, but you’re human, and you’re not married . . . and you’re still in school. If you want to be with InuYasha, I understand that. As I’ve told him, you’re old enough to make your own decisions on that, and as much as I wish you’d talked to me _before_ . . .” she trailed off with a sigh. “I just want you to be happy, Kagome.”

Kagome smiled shyly. “ _He_ makes me happy, Mama . . . and you’re right. It is different for him. Youkai take mates, for life. For him, it is like being married.”

Mrs. Higurashi’s response to that was cut short when InuYasha stomped back into the kitchen and set his mother’s diary on the table in front of her. “What’s this?” she asked, shooting him a puzzled look.

InuYasha shrugged. “It’s my mother’s diary.”

“InuYasha? Are you sure?” Kagome asked softly.

“Keh. Come on, wench. We ain’t got all day.” He left the kitchen without waiting to see if she was following.

Kagome frowned. “Mama, you’ve offended him.”

“I wasn’t trying to offend him.”

“I know, and I understand. Maybe you ought to read that, though. It explains a lot. I’ve got to go.” She hurried over and hugged her mother before dashing out of the kitchen to find InuYasha.

He was halfway to the well-house before she caught up with him. His expression was completely blank, and had it not been for the slight pink dusting his high cheekbones and the telling brightness in his gaze, she wouldn’t have been able to tell that he was upset at all.

She stopped him with a hand on his forearm. “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head slowly. “Keh. It’s alright.”

“No, it isn’t. She just doesn’t understand. Hopefully your mother’s diary will help her. Thank you.”

“Keh.”

Leaning against him as she pushed onto her toes, she kissed him. The familiar lurch in her belly, the inviting crush of his lips over hers made her lean into him. He caught her and held her close, sighing as he pulled back and hugged her. “Warn me before you do that, wench,” he grumbled.

She laughed weakly, trying to control the tremors ricocheting around her body.

He sighed again. “After we talk to the others, I guess I should fix that,” he remarked ruefully. She turned her head and giggled at the wreckage of the well-house doors. He let go of her as the two headed for the well.

Kagome stopped abruptly and gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth as she gaped in horror at the well. “I thought you just hit the doors!” she accused.

InuYasha stared, as shocked as she was. “I didn’t do that . . . I only hit the doors . . . .”

The entire well had been demolished. InuYasha leapt down the steps and tossed aside the wreckage, looking for the hole, the time slip. Kagome ran down to help him. “It’s . . . _it’s gone!_ ” she whispered as she stared at the solid ground under the pile of debris. “How can it just be _gone?_ ”

“We . . . We can’t go back . . . ?” InuYasha murmured, frowning at Kagome as though he expected her to argue with him.

Kagome shook her head as she dug at the hard-packed earth—as though it had been solid for centuries—as though there never had been a well standing there the day before. “Sango . . . Miroku . . . .”

“ _Shippou!_ ” they both exclaimed.

“Don’t just sit there! Help me!” Kagome rasped out as she dug faster. “It just caved in . . . It just—”

InuYasha started to reach for her. Tetsusaiga suddenly pulsed.   They stared at the weapon as InuYasha slowly grasped it. ‘ _It’s calling to him . ._ . .’ Kagome realized. ‘ _Why?_ ’

He stood and shot her a nervous glance as he slowly drew the sword.

Kagome’s eyes rounded in wonder as she stared the vibrating blade. Glowing a deep, sapphire blue color, the power seemed to radiate from Tetsusaiga in waves. He glanced at her again and narrowed his gaze in confusion. “Kagome?”

Dragging her eyes off Tetsusaiga, she followed the direction of his stare. Her body was glowing in that same blue sheen—and so was his.

 

 

 

 

 


	66. Stuck

InuYasha shook his head as he stared in amazement at Blue Tetsusaiga. “What the hell’s going on?”

Kagome shook her head and sat back with a muffled sob. “We can’t go back . . . but we didn’t even get to say goodbye . . . .”

Dropping Tetsusaiga into the sheath, InuYasha hunkered down beside her, drew her into his arms. He wasn’t good at this sort of thing. He knew that as well as anyone. Still, instinct told him that he needed to be the strong one. As much as the thought of having to remain here in her time bothered him, he’d cut his tongue out before he’d say anything against it to her. ‘ _At least we’re still together_.’ He smoothed her hair, let her sob against him as he winced. He hated to see her cry.   “Maybe we can find a way,” he told her.

She sniffled and shook her head. “You know we can’t. You’re just saying that because you think it’s what I want to hear. I’ll just miss them . . . and Shippou.”

 _‘Shippou . . . who’s gonna teach the brat what he needs to know? Who’s going to teach him the things a youkai needs to know?_ ’ InuYasha sighed. “He’ll stay with Miroku and Sango . . . the runt’ll be fine.”

If she caught the doubt in his tone, she didn’t comment. “I just don’t want them to think that I didn’t want to say goodbye,” she mumbled. Suddenly she sat up straight, eyes widening in alarm as something else occurred to her. “I left my backpack there!”

InuYasha frowned. “You’re worried about your _bag?_ ”

She shook her head. “No, but if someone other than Miroku or Sango finds it . . . there’s stuff in there that shouldn’t be in that time!”

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “Even if someone else found it, there’s not much use in worrying about it, right?”

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said quietly.   “I just wish . . . .” She shook her head and drew a deep breath. “It’s because of the jewel, isn’t it? But . . . what about Tetsusaiga? Why is it so blue? Why was it casting that barrier on both of us?”

“Keh,” he snorted as he stood and pulled Kagome to her feet. “I have no idea. I don’t get _any_ of it.”

She stared at the rabble left where the well used to stand. “Why did it do that? Why did it pulse like that? Like it wanted you to use it? Maybe . . . you’re supposed to use Tetsusaiga . . . maybe . . . do you think it can open the well?”

InuYasha didn’t believe that. But Kagome looked so hopeful, so trusting . . . . He nodded and drew the sword once more as she stepped back. Again the blade glowed blue, and again the two of them were wrapped in the sapphire light. InuYasha raised Tetsusaiga above his head and slammed it into the hard ground, embedding the blade deep into the earth. The walls of the well-house trembled. The ground resonated with the force of the sword. A bright blue light flashed out from the blade, jetting out around it like a wave of energy, but when the light faded, nothing had changed.

Jerking the sword out of the earth, he put the Fang away. Kagome sighed softly. “It was worth a try,” she mumbled sadly.

‘ _What the hell is going on? Why can’t anyone ever give me a straight answer? Damn it, someone has to know something . . ._.’ A low snarl escaped InuYasha as he realized that there was someone who might be able to answer some of his questions.   ‘ _I’ll make that bastard talk, even if I have to use Tetsusaiga to loosen his tongue_. . . .’ He turned on his heel and stomped up the stairs and out of the shelter. Kagome followed him. “Where are you going?”

He shook his head. “I’m fucking sick of all these riddles. There’s one person who’s got some answers, and he’s damn well going to spill ‘em.”

“Sesshoumaru?” Kagome murmured and nodded.   “I’m coming with you.”

He started to tell her to stay here. He didn’t like dragging her over there. He never liked the idea of her being anywhere near Sesshoumaru. Determination lit her eyes with a fierce glow. She stared defiantly back at him as though she knew what he was thinking.   He sighed. ‘ _You’d think she’d listen to me more now that I’m her mate, but no-o-o-o . . ._ .’ Shaking his head, he knew that telling Kagome to stay behind was a battle he was sure to lose.

“Keh. Come on.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“InuYasha probably stayed at the well all night,” Shippou remarked as he scampered ahead of Miroku and Sango along the forest path that led to the meadow where the Bone Eater’s Well stood. “He hates to admit how much he misses Kagome whenever she goes back to her time.”

Miroku grinned. “What do you think, Sango? Do you suppose InuYasha is done giving us the silent treatment?”

Sango shook her head and tried not to smile. “Surely not. Most times InuYasha sulks at least a week.”

Miroku grabbed Sango’s arm as they stepped out of the forest and into the clearing. “Something’s wrong . . . can you feel it?”

Sango frowned. “There’s been a youkai here recently . . . .”

He let go and stepped forward. More than the simple lingering youki, there was something far more eerie about the silence in the meadow. As if something had been shifted, altered.

“No!” Shippou screamed.

Miroku ran. “Shippou!” Eyes widening in shock, the monk skidded to a stop next to the kitsune. Rummaging through a pile of debris where the well used to stand, there was nothing but some dried up wood and a few rocks. Kagome’s backpack lay on the ground nearby.

Sango gasped as she drew up beside Miroku. “What . . . ?”

“Kagome!” Shippou wailed as he struggled to move the rubbish. “InuYasha!”

Miroku dug through the wreckage. The area was covered in grass, as though the well hadn’t stood there at all. ‘ _It’s as if the Bone Eater’s Well never stood here . . . . It’s closed, and . . . and that means . . ._.’ Shaking his head in disbelief, turning his stunned gaze on Sango as the kitsune threw himself onto the grass, digging frantically with his tiny paws, Miroku cleared his throat. “She did it . . . Kagome purified the jewel . . . .”

“Houshi-sama!” Sango gasped. “Does that mean—?”

Miroku cast a warning glance toward Shippou, stopping Sango before she could say the words. Lifting his gaze back to hers, he nodded slowly.

The exterminator’s eyes filled with tears as she sank to her knees. Miroku hugged her, wincing as he realized that there wasn’t a thing he could do to comfort her, just as there wasn’t anything he could say that would console the kitsune. The idea that Kagome was somehow gone from their lives was a painful thing, and Sango, who had already lost so very much, was not only losing a friend, she was somehow losing a sister, as well. There wasn’t a thing Miroku could do, not a thing he could say to soothe Sango’s spirit. All he could do was hold her . . . .

‘ _InuYasha . . . . He’s gone, too . . . . The emptiness in the forest, the whisper of the wind . . . the forest mourns the loss of its protector . . ._ .’ Miroku closed his eyes, willing away the pang of loss. To lose both Kagome and InuYasha . . . it was a hurtful thing. Sango might not have realized yet, that the hanyou was gone, too. But Shippou . . . the kitsune knew.

Shippou kept digging, even after his hands were bloody and raw. Gently Sango pulled the kit out of the little hole he’d created. Shippou fought against her hold for a few minutes before turning, sobbing, throwing himself against Sango.

Miroku closed his eyes as the kitsune’s words came back to him: ‘ _All I wanted since my father died was a family. That’s all, I swear . . ._ .’

The three friends sat in that place in silence as the evening shadows fell.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

The door slammed open as InuYasha barreled into Sesshoumaru’s mansion. Without paying any attention to the threats from Sesshoumaru’s employees that came his way, InuYasha dragged Kagome behind him as he strode from room to room. “Sesshoumaru, you bastard! Get out here!”

Nibori loped down the staircase with a wide grin. “Uncle! Good to see you . . . I take it you wish to see Father?”

At the sound of that greeting, InuYasha growled.

“Yes, please,” Kagome said as she peeked out from behind InuYasha’s back.

“I believe Father’s in his study . . . the one door you’ve yet to break down, Uncle,” Nibori remarked dryly, suppressing a grin though his eyes sparkled in his amusement.

“Thank you!” Kagome called back as InuYasha dragged her down the short hallway to the last door.

InuYasha threw his shoulder against that door, too. It splintered and cracked, groaning on its hinges before snapping open.   “Really, InuYasha. Must you raise such a fuss?” Sesshoumaru asked as he glanced up from the papers on his desk.

“I want some answers,” InuYasha snarled. “And you’re going to give ‘em to me.”

Sesshoumaru gathered the stack of papers together and tapped them against the desk. He laid them aside and sat back in his chair before giving InuYasha his complete, if not a bit bored, attention. “You purified the jewel this morning, Miko. I felt the shift.”

Kagome blinked in surprise. “How did you know? The shift in what?”

Flicking his wrist in a dismissive gesture, Sesshoumaru waved away her questions. “It matters not. How did you accomplish this?”

Sesshoumaru’s eyebrows lifted when he caught the decidedly nervous looks that passed between InuYasha and Kagome. When both faces flushed deep scarlet, the tai-youkai narrowed his gaze. “Perhaps I’m far better off not knowing the . . . technicalities.”

“I need some answers,” InuYasha cut in.

“You think I have answers for the likes of you?” Sesshoumaru countered.

“I know you do.”

“And you think I’ll just give them to you?”

“I’d be more than happy to beat them out of you.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome scolded.

“Keep out of this, wench.”

Sesshoumaru stood and slowly rounded his desk. “Once a baka, always a baka.”

“Baka _this_ , you bastard!” InuYasha snarled, drawing Tetsusaiga with a flash of sapphire light.

Sesshoumaru stared at the glowing blue blade with vague surprise before shifting his gaze to his brother and on to Kagome, who were also engulfed in the sheen. “What have you done to Father’s fang?”

“It’s not the old man’s fang anymore,” InuYasha growled. “It’s mine. Unfortunately, I have no fucking idea what Totosai did to it, so sorry if I can’t tell you.”

Sesshoumaru blinked in surprise as a strange sort of understanding lit his gaze, almost a sense of satisfaction . . . . Kagome frowned. ‘ _Why would he be pleased?_ ’

The Inu no Taisho stared at InuYasha. “You allowed him to do something to Tetsusaiga, and you know not what he did? You’re more of a baka than I thought . . . .”

Wind twisted around Tetsusaiga’s blade, which meant that InuYasha had every intention of using it against Sesshoumaru. Kagome rushed between the two. “InuYasha! Stop that!”

“Wench—”

Sesshoumaru leaned back, a look of disgust filtering over his stoic countenance. “You defiled the miko?”

“I didn’t defile anyone! Shut the fuck up, bastard!” InuYasha bellowed, pushing Kagome out of the way as he lunged at Sesshoumaru.

Kagome pushed between the two again and wasted no time in tweaking both of the brothers’ noses at the same time. “Knock it off, already! You’re brothers! You shouldn’t be trying to maim each other!”

Sesshoumaru looked about as appalled as he ever had. “InuYasha . . . control your mate.”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted. “That’s impossible.”

Sesshoumaru pinned Kagome with a cold stare. “One does not tweak the Inu no Taisho.”

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Maybe not the Inu no Taisho, but I can tweak your nose if you go picking a fight with InuYasha.” Turning to InuYasha, she crossed her arms and stared at Tetsusaiga. “Put that away, will you? Just ask _nicely_.”

“ _Nicely?_ ” InuYasha echoed incredulously. “You gotta be kidding . . . there ain’t no way I’m asking him a fucking thing, let alone ‘ _nicely’_.” He did drop Tetsusaiga into the sheath, glaring mulishly at Kagome the entire time.

Sesshoumaru strode over to the mantle and picked up the small wooden box. He turned back to face them and stepped back to the desk to set the box down before he turned away. “Be gone, InuYasha, and take that with you.”

InuYasha eyed the small box with a suspicious glint in his eyes. “What the hell is that?”

“Don’t recognize your own fang?”

“I thought you said you needed it.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, baka. This Sesshoumaru requires not the pitiful fang of a half-breed like you. Take it and go. Your stench is hard to get out of the carpets.”

InuYasha opened the box and stared at the necklace. “What did you do to it?”

Sesshoumaru sat down at his desk and leaned back. “When I discovered that it could not be used, Leikizu had it made into a concealment charm for you. She _likes_ you . . . but then she’s always had a soft spot for pitiful beasts.”

Kagome grabbed InuYasha’s arm before he could lash out at his brother again. “Come on,” she muttered. “Sesshoumaru doesn’t seem to have any answers for you, anyway.”

The hanyou let her drag him toward the doorway.

“Aoirotoku,” Sesshoumaru mumbled as InuYasha reached the threshold.

InuYasha stopped and pulled his arm away from Kagome. “What’d you say?” he asked dubiously, his voice quiet, controlled, eyes narrowing as he glared at his half-brother.

Sesshoumaru nearly smiled as he stared back. “Did I say something?”

“How do you know the name of the barrier?”

“Perhaps you ought to ask Totosai.”

InuYasha blinked in surprise. “That old geezer’s still alive?”

Sesshoumaru chuckled nastily. “So it would seem.”

“Tell me where to find him.”

“You don’t know?”

InuYasha growled in frustration then grabbed Kagome’s hand.   “Come on.”

Sesshoumaru’s smile widened just a little as he heard the front door slam open. Nibori sauntered into the study and sank down in one of the thick chairs across from his father. “That went well.”

“Quite.”

“You sent him to Totosai? You could have told him.”

Sesshoumaru nodded mildly. “I could have.”

Nibori shook his head slowly. “Then why didn’t you?”

“That’s simple, Nibori,” Sesshoumaru said as he turned his attention back to the stack of papers again. “You don’t think that baka would listen to the truth if it came from me, now do you?”

 

 

 

 

 


	67. Ground Rules

Mrs. Higurashi scooted the diary across the table to InuYasha. She sighed and sat back, staring from the hanyou to her daughter then back. With a slow shake of her head, she held her hand, palm up, as though she was looking for the right way to say whatever it was she wanted to say.

InuYasha shot Kagome a distinctly nervous glance. Kagome tried to smile in a reassuring way. The smile felt stilted, fake. Anxiety rose inside her as her mother continued to struggle for words. InuYasha, reacting to the obvious discomfort radiating from Kagome, scooted closer to her, growling slightly as he stared at Mrs. Higurashi. “Don’t growl at Mama,” Kagome whispered, hoping that her mother didn’t hear.

InuYasha blinked in surprise. Whether he hadn’t realized that he was growling or if he hadn’t expected Kagome to remark on it, he stared at her for a moment before he stopped the noise.

“I wanted to thank you, InuYasha, for letting me read your mother’s diary. It was quite insightful, and it cleared up a few of my questions,” Mrs. Higurashi finally said. “And I understand that, according to youkai law, the two of you are . . . ‘ _mated’_.”

Kagome winced inwardly. The way her mother had said the word seemed like ‘mated’ had hurt her to have to say. InuYasha hadn’t missed it, either. He sat up straight, back stiffening as his lips drew back just enough to resemble the near-growl that Kagome knew it was.

“Mama, it’s not a bad thing,” Kagome spoke up.

“Oh, I know, dear.” Mrs. Higurashi sighed. “It simply makes me realize that you really _have_ grown up.”

Mrs. Higurashi rubbed her temple. “Kagome, InuYasha . . . I’m trying to get used to this, because I care about the both of you. I trust you both to make adult decisions about your futures, and I know that things are difficult, especially for you, InuYasha. However, because I am still responsible for you, Kagome, such as it is, I think it is only fair that I give you a few ground rules, and that you abide by them.”

InuYasha didn’t look like he was going to agree to anything. Kagome shifted uncomfortably.

“Rules?” InuYasha echoed apprehensively. “What kind of rules?”

“Just a few basic ones. Kagome, you may not drop out of school, under any circumstances. If the two of you have any future at all, you must finish your schooling. InuYasha, have you ever had any sort of schooling? I’m guessing you can read, but can you write?”

InuYasha snorted. “I can write,” he grumbled, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. Kagome frowned. She knew her mother’s intentions weren’t bad. Still it bothered her. She could tell from his reaction that InuYasha felt like Mrs. Higurashi was belittling him, even if that wasn’t her mother’s objective.

“You’ve got to give some thought to what you could do, and perhaps I can help you with that.   In this day and age, you can’t just go out and hunt your dinner. You have to have a way to financially support my daughter since you can’t go back through the well . . . and after Kagome finishes school, I fully expect the two of you to have a traditional wedding.”

“Keh,” InuYasha scoffed. “That it?”

Mrs. Higurashi grimaced. “There is the matter of children. Now, I understand from your mother’s diary how that works. I also know how hormones work.” Kagome groaned. Mrs. Higurashi ignored her. “I would like you both to promise that you’ll wait to have children until after your married.”

Kagome could feel the flush rising on her face. A quick glance at InuYasha proved that he was blushing, too. “Neither of us is ready for that,” Kagome hurried to say. InuYasha remained silent, eyebrow twitching and jaw clenched tight. Suddenly he shot to his feet and stomped out of the kitchen. Seconds later the door slammed. Kagome winced.

“I’m sorry, Kagome. I know you love him, and I know he loves you. I’m simply concerned.”

Kagome nodded. “I know . . . I’m going to go see if he’s okay.” She got up and sighed.

“Kagome?”

She stopped and faced her mother again.

“If it means anything to the two of you . . . I think you do belong together, and I’m grateful that he allowed me to read the diary. I’m sure it was difficult for him to share.”

Kagome nodded and offered her mother a small grin before she hurried out of the kitchen. ‘ _Knowing InuYasha, he’s sitting up in Goshinboku_ . . . .’

“Hey, up there . . . want some company?” Kagome called, shielding her eyes from the glare of the afternoon sunshine with a hand.

InuYasha didn’t answer out loud. He hopped down, scooped her up, and leaped back into the tree.

“I get the feeling that you’re upset about more than just what Mama said,” Kagome remarked after he let go of her and sat back, arms folded together under the generous sleeves of his haori.

He shook his head slowly. “Pups,” he grumbled. “Does she think I’m fucking stupid?”

“She doesn’t think you’re stupid at all . . . and you’re the one who said before that you didn’t want them yet, anyway . . . what’s this really about?”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh.”

Kagome sighed. “What is it?”

“I just . . . I can’t . . . _damn_ it!”

Staring at him in the sunshine patched by swaying tree branches, Kagome felt his turmoil.   Eyes full of dread, of sorrow, what ghosts haunted him?   “InuYasha?”

“There were so many things I didn’t get a chance to teach him, Kagome.”

She frowned. “Who?”

Leaning forward and digging his claws into the branch, InuYasha grimaced as his ears drooped. “Who’s going to teach Shippou the things he needs to know? Miroku’s there, sure, but he’s human . . . I thought I’d be able to show him the things he needed to know. I thought there was plenty of time.”

A slow understanding washed over Kagome. She smiled slightly even as tears welled in her eyes. Blinking quickly, struggling to keep them from falling, she sighed and shrugged. “When did that happen?” she asked softly.

“What?”

“When did you start thinking of him as your own?”

“Keh! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he protested.

“It’s okay to feel like that. I’m worried about him, too.”

InuYasha stared out over the city with a sad longing. ‘ _He’s remembering when there was no city here . . . when there was nothing but trees . . . and he misses it._ ’ Another look filtered over his face. A pain so deep that he winced clouded his expression, lent a glimmer to his eyes, a suspicious brightness to his gaze. “I know what it’s like, to grow up without a real family, without a father. Shippou . . . I didn’t want him to know that, too.”

“I wish I had known,” Kagome remarked, “I would have taken off the jewel . . . I _should_ have taken off the jewel . . . .”

“And you think that would have stopped it? It still would have purified, if it was meant to.”

She sighed. He was probably right about that. “I guess so.”

InuYasha held Tetsusaiga, wrapped his arms around it as he frowned in thought. “I think Sesshoumaru wants me to go see Totosai.”

“Will you do it?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Even if I don’t want to, I have to. There’re things I don’t understand about Tetsusaiga, and that old codger’s the one who did it.”

“How do you know where he is?”

“Sesshoumaru said that I should know. Guess that means the old man’s still living in his weird cave.”

“When are we leaving?”

“I could go alone,” he remarked. “It’d be faster.”

She shook her had stubbornly. “I’m going, too. You’re not used to this time yet, remember? Besides, I forgot how crowded my time is.”

“Might as well wait till morning,” he finally agreed. “I wouldn’t get far, waiting for you to keep up.”

She didn’t miss the teasing note in his voice. She grinned and scooted closer to him. Shoving the sword through his waist band, he settled back and pulled Kagome against his chest. “Pathetic human?”

“Keh.”

She snuggled closer but made a face when the hard edges of something poked at her. Leaning back, Kagome reached into his haori and pulled out the wooden box. “Should you wear this?” she asked as she opened the lid and pulled out the fang necklace.

“Keh. You’ve got to be kidding. Sesshoumaru probably had a curse put on it, just to piss me off.”

“I don’t feel anything bad surrounding it,” Kagome insisted.

“I’m _not_ wearing it. I’ll wear the stupid hat, but I ain’t wearing _that_.”

“Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe Leikizu just wanted to make sure you had a concealment charm . . . I mean, I love seeing your ears. They were a major selling point. But you’d probably draw a lot of unnecessary attention if you run around Tokyo with them showing . . . .”

“Selling point? Keh.”

She leaned up to kiss his cheek. He turned his head, capturing her lips with his. With a soft sigh, she instantly relaxed against him. Coaxing her lips to part with a gentle claw tugging at the corner of her mouth, she gasped as his tongue invaded the recesses of her, tasting her, enticing her, reveling in her . . . .

“Kagome! InuYasha! Dinner’s ready!” Mrs. Higurashi called as she leaned out the back door.

“She hates me,” InuYasha complained as he dropped his head back against the tree trunk.

Kagome giggled as she fought down the swell of heat that InuYasha’s kiss had inspired in her. “She doesn’t hate you.”

“Wanna bet?” he grumbled as he gathered her up and dropped out of the tree. He followed Kagome into the shrine with a last long look around at the world he didn’t really know.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha stared out Kagome’s window staring out at the night sky. She was taking a bath, and he was alone. The modern world was awash with fake lights. He’d seen it many times, the wonders of Kagome’s time. They could light up a room as though it was still mid-day. It seemed so unnatural.

The soft knock on the door caught InuYasha’s attention. He turned in time to see Mrs. Higurashi step into the room with a stack of laundry. She smiled at him before she busied herself, putting away the clothes. InuYasha continued to stare outside.

“How far is it to this ‘Totosai’ fellow?” Mrs. Higurashi asked, drawing his gaze again.   She offered him a shy smile that so resembled Kagome’s that he blinked in surprise.

InuYasha turned away from the window. “About a day.”

She nodded. There was something else on her mind, he could tell. He waited. “I know you were upset about our talk earlier. I wanted to tell you that it wasn’t my intention at all. I think you and Kagome . . . you two belong together. I should have seen it coming. I just . . . . You just took me by surprise.”

InuYasha cleared his throat nervously, ears twitching, unable to meet Mrs. Higurashi’s steady gaze. “I want her to be happy.”

Mrs. Higurashi giggled. “I know you do. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my daughter as happy as she is when she’s with you. “

He didn’t know what to say to that. He gestured at the window, at the world outside. “I’m never going to fit in here.”

“You could, if you wanted to.”

He shook his head. “I don’t have a choice. There’s no way back.”

“And if you could go back? What about Kagome?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

Mrs. Higurashi shrugged. “I mean, if you could go back but Kagome could not . . . what would you do?”

“Keh! She belongs with me. If she couldn’t go, then I wouldn’t, either.”

She seemed to be pleased with that answer. “Well, I’ve got a few things I have to get done bright and early tomorrow. I think I’ll be going to bed.” She headed toward the door then stopped to glance back at him one last time. “And, InuYasha? I know you’ll be careful with Kagome.”

He nodded in response as she backed out of the room.

Gaze falling on the small wooden box that held his fang, InuYasha frowned and slowly picked it up. ‘ _A concealment charm? Keh. Why would Sesshoumaru have bothered? He hates me, not that I care. Fucking bastard, I_ know _he did something to this_ . . . .’ He frowned as he held the chain before his face, eyes fixed on his fang. ‘ _Kagome didn’t sense any bad energy coming from it . . . still . . . what the hell did he do to it?_ ’

“You going to wear that?”

InuYasha started. Kagome entered the room as she rubbed her hair in a towel.

“Keh,” he snorted, dropping the necklace back into the box before snapping it closed and letting the box thump onto the desk again.

Dressed in an oversized tee shirt and shorts, Kagome draped the towel over the back of her desk chair and dug out her hairbrush. InuYasha made a face. He could tell from her scent that her body was still reacting to her mortal cycles. He’d discerned the rich smell of fertile blood just before she headed off to take her bath. He sighed. Everything was conspiring against him. The well closed up . . . Sesshoumaru was still alive . . . Tetsusaiga turned blue . . . he was being forced to hunt down Totosai . . . Kagome’s mother hated him . . . and, of course, Kagome’s body was thwarting him, too . . . .

“It’s been five hundred years, InuYasha . . . maybe Sesshoumaru has changed.”

“Keh,” he replied again as he pulled the brush out of her hand and crawled onto the bed. Kagome sat between his legs and leaned forward so he could work the tangles out of her hair. “Fat chance.”

She raised her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs, and rested her cheek against them as he brushed her hair. “People can change . . . You’ve changed since we first met.”

“I have not,” he argued. His hand stilled as he sniffed. “Oi, wench, why can’t I smell you?”

Lifting her chin to look over her shoulder at him, she frowned. “What are you talking about?”

He grimaced then stabbed her with a narrow-eyed look that was full of suspicion. “Blood, Kagome. I can’t smell it. What did you do?”

Face reddening as she comprehended what he was asking, Kagome shot off the bed and grabbed her robe. “I’d think that’d be a good thing,” she mumbled, cheeks darkening as she tied the belt closed.

“It might be,” he agreed slowly, “if you explain why I can’t smell it anymore.”

“Because,” she gritted out as she grabbed the brush and tossed it into the drawer again, “I use tampons, that’s why.”

“And that means . . . ?”

With a heavy sigh, Kagome dug into the new backpack and pulled out a box. After opening the box, muttering under her breath about possessive mates, she jerked out a folded up bit of paper and dropped it in InuYasha’s lap.

He cast her one last suspicious glance before unfolding the paper and reading it over. His cheeks reddened about as quickly as hers had as comprehension dawned on him.

“Wha . . . ? You . . . ? Oh _hell_ no, wench! _No!_ ”

“InuYasha!” she gasped as he dragged the box out of the bag and proceeded to destroy both the box as well as the contents. “I need those!”

“Keh!” he snorted. “Think again, wench. You’re not sticking those things . . . _no!_ ”

“But—”

“Fucking find something else! Use leaves for all I care, but you _aren’t_ using those,” he growled.

She drew a deep breath and narrowed her gaze on him. “Why are you so upset about those?”

“Do you _know_ where they go?”

“Actually, I do.”

“Keh! Then you know why I said no!”

“InuYasha!”

“That—” he growled, waving his hand toward her, “is mine. You can’t use those things!”

“Can we discuss this?” she asked.

“No . . . wait . . . are you using one of those damn things now?”

Kagome suddenly looked very nervous. “It doesn’t matter.”

He leaned forward, ready to pounce. She held out her hands to stop him. “You’ve got two minutes to get rid of it,” he snarled. “No arguments.”

“InuYasha! Now you’re being ridiculous, and—”

“And you’re wasting time.”

With an exasperated sigh followed by a frustrated growl, Kagome jerked open her bedroom door and huffed out of the room.

Settling back against the wall with his arms wrapped around Tetsusaiga, InuYasha couldn’t help but be a little smug that he’d effectively won that round . . . .

Kagome stomped back into her room a few minutes later and reddened as InuYasha made a point of sniffing. Satisfied that she’d removed the offending ‘tampon’, he dared a grin—until she picked up the little wooden box and tapped it against her empty hand.

“Ok, Mr. Dog-Man, you win that round . . . _but_ . . . .”

He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what came after that ‘but’.   “But what, wench?”

“This is what we call ‘quid-pro-quo’—”

“Huh?”

“Quid-pro-quo . . . it means, if I agree to your terms, you have to agree to mine. I won’t use tampons ever again if you agree to wear the necklace.”

“ _Fuck_ no.”

She narrowed her gaze. “Hmm. If this—” she said, gesturing at her body, “is yours, then _those_ —” she went on, pointing at his ears, “are mine. No one else can touch them if they can’t see them . . . .”

InuYasha growled low in his throat. On the one hand, he would be damned if he would willingly allow her to use anything like those tampons inside her body . . . on the other hand . . . . “And you’re _positive_ you can’t sense any curse on that thing?”

“It’s fine,” she said as she dug the necklace out of the box and held it out to him.

With a heavy sigh, InuYasha glared at the necklace. “Sneaky wench,” he muttered as he jerked it out of her hand. “If this kills me . . . .”

‘ _InuYasha—four, sneaky wench—one_ ,’ he thought with a grimace as he dropped the necklace over his head.

 

 

 

 

 


	68. Blue Tetsusaiga

“I’m amazed this place is still standing,” InuYasha mumbled as Kagome slid off his back. Staring around at the desolate landscape, it seemed as though time had left Totosai’s cave untouched. “Totosai? You here?” InuYasha called as he headed inside.

“Huh? Who’s there? Ahhhhh! InuYasha? You’re not dead . . . ?”

InuYasha jerked back in shock when the old swordsmith screamed in his face. Recovering quickly enough, he reached over and thumped Totosai in the head. “Of course I’m not dead, but I will be if you keep screaming at me!”

Totosai scratched his head thoughtfully. “Oh? Well, maybe I had you confused with Myouga . . . I knew one of you was dead . . . must be him . . . .”

“Why aren’t you dead?”

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped. “That’s not very nice!”

Totosai grabbed Tetsusaiga. “Oi! Hands off!” InuYasha growled, jerking the sword out of Totosai’s hands.

“You mean you didn’t break it? The only time you seek me out is when you’ve managed to damage it . . . .”

“There’s nothing wrong with my sword . . . other than the fact that it’s turned blue,” InuYasha remarked, thumping the sword against Totosai’s head to emphasize his words.

Totosai rubbed his head. “Blue, you say? Let me see . . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes and pulled Tetsusaiga out of the scabbard. The blade erupted in the sapphire blue light that engulfed him and Kagome in the sheen. “What the fuck did you do to my sword, you old coot?”

Totosai cocked his head to the side as he stared. “Huh? Did I do that? InuYasha . . . Why’s Tetsusaiga so blue?”

“Why, you—”

“You don’t remember, Totosai? You fixed a crack in Tetsusaiga five hundred years ago,” Kagome interrupted.

Slowly considering Kagome’s words, Totosai finally seemed to remember. “Oh, yes . . . I remember . . . so it took you five hundred years to claim your mate, did it? Slower than I thought, InuYasha . . . .”

“What?”

“You’ve unlocked the secret of Blue Tetsusaiga, and to have done that, all you had to do was claim your mate. Why did it take you five hundred years? Myouga always said you were simple, but that’s slow, even for you . . . .”

“Damn it,” InuYasha snarled as his face reddened.

“I think I’m going to die now,” Kagome muttered as her face exploded in embarrassed color.

“All you have left is to figure out how to gain the ultimate power,” Totosai continued.

“Ultimate power? What ultimate power?”

Totosai blinked quickly. “Did I say something?”

“Totosai—”

“InuYasha, why are you blue?” Totosai asked.

InuYasha growled but dropped Tetsusaiga into the sheath again. “I ought to clobber you, old man. Tell me what you mean. How do I gain the ultimate power?”

“Ultimate power? Of what?”

“Of Tetsusaiga!” Kagome interjected when InuYasha’s growl escalated into a snarl.

“Oh, that!” Totosai scratched his head again. “Hmm, funny . . . I don’t remember . . . . Did you try asking it nicely?”

“Huh?”

“I need a bath . . . .”

“Forget it! Come on, Kagome! This old man is nuts.”

“Aoirotoku is the key, InuYasha,” Totosai called after them.

InuYasha stopped and turned to face the swordsmith again. “How?”

“How? Well, Myouga sucked Kagome’s blood and spit it in a bowl, then he sucked yours and spit it in the bowl, then I used them to repair the crack in Tetsusaiga . . . .”

“No, how is Aoirotoku the key?”

“Key to what?”

“Fucking . . . .” InuYasha turned on his heel and stomped out of the cave before he gave in to the desire to smack Totosai once more.

“Well, that was . . . not very helpful,” Kagome remarked.

InuYasha shook his head slowly. “I should have known that old codger wouldn’t tell me a damn thing. When does he ever?”

“He did say that Tetsusaiga has an ultimate power . . . what do you suppose that meant? Another attack?”

InuYasha dragged Kagome onto his back. “I don’t know.”

She groaned suddenly, burying her face in InuYasha’s shoulder. “If Totosai knew about . . . _us_ . . . does that mean everyone else does, too?”

InuYasha shrugged and tried not to blush. “Keh!”

“How humiliating . . . everyone’s going to know we—that we—how we—”

“Don’t chew it to death, wench!” he growled as he picked up speed. ‘ _Damn that old man . . . and damn_ my _old man_ . . . . _He’s probably laughing his ass off, wherever he is now_ . . . .’

“But—”

“Listen, I’m not ashamed of what we did . . . are you?”

“No, but—”

“Then who cares who knows what?”

“Well, just because I’m not ashamed of us doesn’t mean that I want everyone in the world to know . . . do you know how that sounds? That you unlocked the ultimate power of Tetsusaiga by—”

“I know, I know! Damn, Kagome!”

She groaned then giggled. When her giggling didn’t diminish, InuYasha stopped and pulled her off his back to glare at her. “What are you laughing about?”

She waved her hands but laughed a little harder. “Not really funny,” she gasped out. “Could you imagine what Miroku would say if he knew?” Apparently, whatever it was Kagome thought the perverted monk would say was hilarious to her.

InuYasha couldn’t say he agreed. He could imagine Miroku’s reaction, and that was enough to make him grimace—and blush. ‘ _Maybe_ ,’ he thought with an inward wince, ‘ _it’s a good thing we can’t get back through the well_ . . . .’ Folding his arms together, he snorted. “Keh! It’s not that funny, wench.”

Kagome kept laughing. “Laugh or cry . . . I’d rather laugh . . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes and dragged his still-giggling mate onto his back once more before he set off toward the shrine again.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“I don’t think it’s working.”

“Quiet, Kagome. I know what I’m doing.”

“Are you sure? Don’t point it at me!”

“Keh! Don’t question your mate!”

“Here,” Kagome said, holding out a parchment-paper wrapped rice ball.

“How can you possibly think about food when I can’t figure out how to use this damn thing?”

“Put it away before you hurt someone! You’re swinging it around like a lunatic . . . .”

“Lunatic? I ought to tweak you for that . . . .”

“You can’t tweak me for pointing out the obvious.”

“Do you want to try to figure it out, then?”

“Of course not! I don’t want to touch it! It freaks me out a little . . . it’s weird-looking . . . .”

“Then be quiet and let me do this!”

“But you’re holding it too tight.”

“Wench . . . .”

“ . . . Okay.”

InuYasha lifted Tetsusaiga above his head as the wind wrapped around the shimmering blue blade. He brought it down, unleashing the Kaze no Kizu in a powerful wave, but still the same Wind Scar that he already knew. Kongousouha was the same. InuYasha jammed the sword point-down in the grass with a loud snort. A vague blue wave rippled out from the blade about ten feet in all directions before it faded away. When he let go of the hilt, the blade transformed back to its rusty state, and he shook his head in obvious disgust. “I don’t get it. What the hell did Totosai mean, that Aoirotoku was the key?”

“What was that wave?” Kagome asked, staring at the ground around Tetsusaiga. “It did that in the well-house, too . . . and the energy blast when you were fighting Katosan . . . .”

InuYasha’s eyebrows drew together in a thoughtful frown. “I don’t know. That can’t be it, though. It was too weak . . . .”

Kagome sat in the grass, carefully chewing a bite of the rice ball that InuYasha had declined. “Well, Aoirotoku means ‘blue shield’ barrier . . . but . . . do you think Totosai might have meant that the key was what Aoirotoku stood for instead of Aoirotoku, itself?”

Jerking Tetsusaiga out of the ground to resheathe it, he flopped down in the grass beside her. “I don’t follow.”

She shrugged as he grabbed her wrist and bit into the rice ball, barely missing her fingers. “Hey! Watch out! You almost bit me!”

“Incidentals, wench. Explain what you meant.”

“Ugh. Stop talking with your mouth full,” she commented. “I just meant, maybe you have to use Tetsusaiga to do a certain thing, in order for the technique to work. Maybe it’s a defensive technique instead of an offensive one, you know, like the Bakuryuuha.”

He made a face. “What good is a defensive technique? I don’t want to have to wait till I’m attacked in order to use the new power of Tetsusaiga. That’s a bunch of—” He cut himself off when she reached over and tweaked his nose.

“You’re spitting food all over. That’s gross.”

He made a point of swallowing before scrunching up his nose. “You can’t tweak me, I’ve told you!” he blustered as he grabbed her hand again and ate the rest of the rice ball, biting her fingers in the process.

“Ow!”

“Keh! That didn’t hurt,” he informed her around his mouthful of food. She made a face as tiny bits of rice flew out of his mouth along with his words.

“You bit me on purpose,” she accused.

He swallowed his food and grabbed her hand for the third time. Holding it two inches from his eyes, he inspected the finger before snorting as he dropped her hand again. “Not even a mark. You’re fine.”

“Still,” she maintained as she dug a bottle of water out of her bag, “I wouldn’t bite you.” He snatched her wrist and tipped the bottle to his lips. “InuYasha, you could have asked for a bottle of your own,” she remarked as he emptied nearly the entire thing.

“I’m not thirsty now.”

“I wonder why,” she muttered as she dug around for another bottle. InuYasha stretched out, dropping his head in her lap. Kagome stared down at him with a completely stoic expression. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“You know you want to, wench.”

“Want to what?”

In answer, he twitched his ears. Kagome rolled her eyes. A wicked glint lit her eyes, and she smiled sweetly at the hanyou. “I’m so sorry, InuYasha . . . my diary was in the other bag, so I guess you’re out of luck.” Adding a wistful sigh for good measure, she carefully pushed him off her lap before standing up and retrieving her bag.

InuYasha stared in shock as his mate pulled the backpack over her shoulders and waited for him. ‘ _What . . . what just happened? She . . . turned me down? I offer her a chance to rub my ears, and she turns me down? Keh!_ ’

She giggled. “Stop pouting, InuYasha! We’ve got a long way to go before dark.”

“We’ll make it in plenty of time,” he scoffed as he hopped to his feet, “and I’m not pouting.”

“Okay, you’re not pouting,” she agreed as he pulled her onto his back for the rest of the trip. “You’re just making a nice ledge for a bird to nest on.”

“Keh.”

“Right there,” she remarked, using her index finger to jiggle his bottom lip.

“Wench, I’ll drop you,” he warned as he pushed off the ground and turned his face away from her finger.

She giggled and tightened her hold on him. ‘ _Score another one for Kagome_ ,” she thought with a content smile, laying her cheek against his shoulder.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha stomped into Kagome’s room with a scowl on his face and a pink towel draped over his hair, rubbing with his hands against the towel.

Glancing up from her calculus book—the third one her mother had to buy—she’d meant only to see what he was doing.   Eyes widening, she stared in utter befuddlement as he muttered under his breath about ‘fucking tubs’ and ‘scalding water’. Wearing a pair of rather small sweatpants that hugged his body just a little too well, Kagome couldn’t even remember to breathe as she gaped. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt, nor, did it seem, had he bothered with the boxer shorts her mother had purchased for him. The sweats were tight enough that she would have been able to tell if he had been wearing those . . . . ‘ _Ack! Stop gawking at him!_ ’ She blinked as pink filtered over her cheeks. ‘ _Then again, he is your mate . . . gawk all you want_. . . .’

“Your mother hates me,” InuYasha informed her as he turned to intercept her bemused stare. “Kagome? You okay?” his gaze narrowed as he eyed her. “You want a spoon?”

“Huh?” Kagome asked, unable to drag her eyes off the golden expanse of his chest.

“A spoon, wench, a spoon . . . .”

Taking another moment to register exactly what he meant, Kagome’s face shot up in flames as understanding dawned on her. “I wasn’t—”

“You were. Eating me all up,” he remarked with a smug grin.

Studiously avoiding his gaze by sticking her nose back into the calculus book, Kagome tried to hide her embarrassment, which only served to further InuYasha’s humor. “What did you say about Mama?” she finally asked to change the subject.

He snorted. “Your mother hates me.”

Eyes peeking over the calculus book, Kagome stifled a groan. “Why do you think that?”

‘Pouty face’ was back as he wrinkled his nose and sat down on the edge of the bed. “She _yelled_ at me.”

“Why?” she asked cautiously.

“I dunno. Ask her.” Kagome thought it over for a few moments before tossing aside the comforter and hopping out of the bed. “Oi, wench! Where are you going?”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “Where do you think? To ask Mama why she yelled at you.”

Before he could stop her, she skittered out of the room and ran down the stairs. Mrs. Higurashi was in the living room watching the late news. “Mama, InuYasha said you yelled at him.”

Mrs. Higurashi’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t yell . . . well, I didn’t mean to.”

“Oh, no . . . what did he do?”

Mrs. Higurashi sighed. “I was putting things away, and he had the bathroom door open.”

Little alarm bells started clanging unmercifully in Kagome’s head. “Oh, no . . . he didn’t . . . you didn’t see—”

Her mother laughed and waved a hand. “No, nothing like that. He was . . . shaking his head. I’m afraid I was a bit shocked. The bathroom was a mess, water everywhere . . . .”

Kagome bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. “Do you want me to clean it up?”

Mrs. Higurashi blushed faintly. “I’m afraid that’s why I yelled at him. He cleaned it up.”

“I see . . . he said you hate him.”

With a gasp, Mrs. Higurashi flicked of the television and stood up. “I’d better apologize . . . can’t have him thinking that . . . .”

“It’s okay, Mama. I don’t think he believes that. He’s just pouting.”

“ _I don’t pout!_ ”

Kagome rolled her eyes and headed out of the room again. “Night, Mama.”

“Night dear,” Mrs. Higurashi said with a grin, then a little louder, she called, “Good night, InuYasha!”

“Keh!”

“InuYasha!”

An exasperated sigh drifted down the stairwell and into the living room. “Good night, Mrs. Higurashi.”

Kagome followed InuYasha back up the stairs with a small smile on her face. “You should have realized Mama wouldn’t like the way you dry your hair,” she remarked as she crawled back under the covers.

“You women have strange sensibilities.”

“Do we?”

InuYasha didn’t bother to answer as he stepped over to snatch the calculus book out of her hands. “I can bury this one, too,” he remarked.

“You can’t . . . that was the other one.”

“Keh. It looks the same.”

“No, it doesn’t. This one doesn’t look like you chewed on it.”

He narrowed his eyes on her. “That could be arranged,” he warned.

Kagome sighed and reached over onto her nightstand. “Might as well finish reading your mother’s diary then, huh?” Looking down at the book she held, Kagome frowned. “This one isn’t your mothers . . . .” she turned the volume over in her hands. “Isn’t this the one I gave you before?”

InuYasha suddenly reached for the book. Kagome snatched it out of his grasp as she eyed him. “You’re acting weird . . . why is that?”

“Keh! You’re imagining things,” he assured her as he reached for the book again.

“Am I?” she countered, her eyebrows lifting in unison. “Then why are you blushing?”

“I’m not!” he growled as he managed to snatch the book out of her hands.   “Nosy wench.”

Kagome’s curiosity was peaked, and she reached for the book again. InuYasha dropped it on her desk and came back, none-too-gently scooting her over before he flopped down beside her.

She tried to crawl over him. He caught her and pulled her against his chest. “Know what happens to sneaky wenches that don’t stay out of other people’s stuff?”

Her breath caught at the proximity of their bodies but she managed to shake her head as she stared into his mesmerizing golden eyes. ‘ _Molten lava_ ,’ she thought hazily.

He kissed her quickly then rolled, pinning her in place with a leg draped over hers and his arms wrapped tightly around her. “You’ll find out first hand if you don’t leave that alone,” he warned.

She sighed in protest but didn’t try to free herself, either. “What did you write in there?”

“Nothing about you.”

“InuYasha! That’s not very—”

“Go to sleep, wench.”

“But I’m not tired,” she argued.

Since both of his arms were wrapped securely around her, he used his nose to tweak hers. “Go to sleep.”

She sighed again. ‘ _Fine_ ,’ she thought with an inward grin, ‘ _Just wait until you’re asleep . . . I’ll get it . . . then . . . ._ ’ Kagome yawned as InuYasha’s soft, rasping rumble engulfed her, coaxing her toward sleep. ‘ _As soon as . . . he’s . . . asleep_ . . . .’

Moments later, she was asleep.

 

 

 

 

 


	69. Mamorikoi

The darkness was as thick as fog, shrouding the landscape in the deepest night, the pall of memories best left forgotten. The moon was hidden behind the shadows of clouds, whispering stillness echoed through the ears like an unkind hum, a steady drone.

Scurrying from the deepest shadows beside the hut, he ran without making a sound. ‘ _Don’t wake the others . . . they’ll come after you, and they’ll make you go back . . . ._ ’

He was fast certainly. He was also young, and because of that, the others didn’t trust him out on his own, especially at night, especially where he was headed.

Logic assured him that, even if they were able to return, that they would certainly come straight to the village. Still, in his young mind, he couldn’t help but worry that maybe—just maybe—if he wasn’t there, they would leave him again.

Running through the forest as quickly as his legs would go, the kitsune burst out of the trees, headed for the gentle rise, the sloping hill where the Bone Eater’s Well used to stand. ‘ _I’ll wait here for them . . . for Kagome, and for InuYasha . . . . They wouldn’t have left me. They’d never have left me behind . . . ._ ’

It was true, InuYasha and he had spent more time fussing with each other and fighting over Kagome’s attention than they should have. InuYasha was always jealous of the attention Kagome paid Shippou, and he had known that and had used it to his advantage, he was ashamed to admit.

But since the purification incident, things had changed so much. InuYasha had behaved more like a father to him than a big, mean, bullying brother. He’d even taken him hunting every night on their journey to Norimitsu’s castle, and InuYasha had even been pleased that Shippou had been able to retrieve his mother’s diary from the castle, even if he didn’t come right out and say the words.

Shippou yawned and held the stuffed dog tight in his arms. Even if they weren’t able to find a way back through, he couldn’t deny that he felt closer to the both of them, right here, and even though Sango and Miroku would be upset that he’d taken off again, he didn’t care. Sango and Miroku were his friends. InuYasha and Kagome were his family.

The kitsune cuddled up under the white knit sweater he’d dug out of Kagome’s abandoned backpack. It still smelled like both her and InuYasha. He was asleep in minutes.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome awoke instantly, as though her body and mind had slept far too long. ‘ _That journal!_ ’ she thought suddenly. InuYasha was already up and gone from the room. She sat up quickly and hopped out of bed to retrieve the book. Settling back against her pillows, Kagome tried to listen, making sure that InuYasha wasn’t near . . . . ‘ _Let’s see what he’s written in here . . . wonder if he really didn’t write something in here about me . . . ?_ ’

“Oi, wench! I thought I told you to keep your sneaky nose out of that!” InuYasha remarked as he hopped in the window. Kagome shrieked and dropped the book. Before she could recover, he had it stowed carefully it his haori.

“I let you read mine!” she argued.

“Keh!”

“This is so unfair.”

“Live with it, Kagome. You didn’t ask,” he remarked as he sank down on the bed beside her and tweaked her nose.

She tried to reach for his haori. He caught her wrist. She grabbed with her other hand. He caught that one, too. “InuYasha! This isn’t fair, either,” she complained as she tried to pull her hands free.

Catching both her wrists in one hand, InuYasha used his other to tweak her nose again. “I don’t see the problem.”

Heart stuttering, faltering in its rhythm, Kagome felt an altogether too-nice shiver race up her spine. “I can’t move,” she remarked quietly, staring into the brightness of his gaze as a strange mix of heat and churning roiled in her.

“I know . . . let’s see if I can shut you up, too.”

“That’s not—”

His lips silenced her, warm, soft, delicate, and teasing. The paradox of fangs and flesh drew a soft moan from her as he stroked her cheek, wrapped his fingers in her hair. She forgot to struggle against his hold as he nibbled the tender skin on her jaw line, along the curve of her neck. A slow ache ignited, the kindling of desire nursed by gentle breath, by silken strands of faith. InuYasha’s heart beat against her own, the erratic beat thumping in time with the fervor he inspired in her.

Arching her body against his, the silent question asked and answered. He pushed her back with his own weight, pressing her down, she acquiesced to him as he growled low, nestled against the crook of her neck. Rasping breath made her shiver. Claws whispering over her collarbones made her sigh. He was wild yet contained, ardent yet giving. The same gruff, surly hanyou, the man she loved, the boy that made her smile, all in the same was the one being Kagome reveled in.

She wanted to touch him, hold him. Whimpering softly, complaining without words, she tried to pull her hands out of his grasp. He growled at her, warning her to be still. She didn’t listen. Bucking against him as she tried in vain to yank free, InuYasha nipped at her neck to still her. She gasped as sinuous combustion raged through her. Trembling under the soothing touch of his hand, her body reacted with a mind of its own.   Her aura reached for him, wrapped around him, held him close, asked him to shelter her. He brought his mouth up to hers again. A soft whimper, a hedonistic sigh, sounds that ebbed and flowed as he teased her with his kisses.

“Kagome, InuYasha! Oh!”

InuYasha jumped away from Kagome as though he’d been scalded as Mrs. Higurashi stuck her head into the room. His face was ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red, only to be topped by Kagome’s fire-rat-haori hue. Mrs. Higurashi, herself, was quite pink-faced, too, and she cleared her throat. “You’ve a guest waiting.”

Kagome groaned as her mother hurried away, pulling the door closed behind her.   “How embarrassing!” she complained as she turned over to bury her face in her pillows.

InuYasha snorted. “Keh.”

The door closed behind him as Kagome sat up. The interruption had been enough to quell the moment, certainly. Now if she could make her body understand that the magic had passed, she’d be one step ahead of the game.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

He was close. He could smell him. The lingering scent had been enough. InuYasha had allowed that brat to do the task for him? The hanyou thought that he would allow such a trespass to go unpunished? ‘ _Foolish . . . foolish and fatal. No one infiltrates my domain and lives to tell the tale_.’

Norimitsu grimaced. The very thought of the kitsune’s scent was enough to ignite the anger all over again. Sending a child? Hiding behind a bitch? The hanyou had audacity to spare. Too bad he was going to have to die.

‘ _Rid the world of the hanyou . . . then I shall relieve the world of his brother, as well_.’ Sons of the Inu no Taisho . . . sons of that unnatural being . . . they would fall. They would all be put into their graves.

That strange miko was the problem. She was powerful—too powerful. The hanyou’s heart burned for the miko. She somehow lent him strength. How it was accomplished, whether through witchcraft or sorcery, Norimitsu knew that she had some unearthly alliance, some prevailing presence. Raised in her was the power of countless dead mikos. They manifested their abilities, housed in the body of this one young girl.

Stronger than Midoriko, they said of the girl, powerful enough to purify the strongest youkai. Wasn’t it the miko along with her first incarnation that had brought the mighty Naraku to his demise? And yet the presence of the Shikon no Tama lingered no longer.

Norimitsu had never truly desired the tainted power of the Jewel of Four Souls. It was a controlled power, governed by the will of those whose souls it contained: the living souls of those long dead. The miko wasn’t his concern. Young and untried, the girl knew little of her own strength, her own power. Had it not been for the odd barrier, the bond of the two who should never be joined, she would have been destroyed long ago. Theirs was an unnatural alliance, an unholy association. Miko and hanyou—the purest and the most tainted . . . Norimitsu would show them both the weakness of their plight. To crush the miko would mean the demise of the hanyou because the hanyou made the biggest mistake of all in daring to think that a hanyou could be loved.

But first things first . . . the kitsune.   He would know where to find the miko and the hanyou.

Norimitsu smiled at the sleeping child lying at his feet. Too young to sense that he was in danger, the kit slept blissfully, happily, unaware that he was soon enough to know the meaning of pain. ‘ _First I must know where InuYasha is hiding. Such a coward, InuYasha, that you will send a pitiful child such as this to steal from me? Your audacity knows no bounds . . . and because of your arrogance, this kitsune . . . . He shall die ._ . . .’

His plan was coming together. ‘ _Now_ ,’ he thought as he bent down next to the kit, cracking his knuckles in anticipation of what was to come, ‘ _for it to bear fruit_. . . .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha stepped into the living room and stopped short, eyes narrowing as he glowered at the youkai who dared to enter the shrine. “You . . .”

“It has been a long time, has it not, InuYasha-sama?”

“What the fuck do you want, Katosan? What are you doing here?”

“You aren’t happy to see me? Why is that?”

InuYasha bared his fangs in a grimace. “Give me one good reason not to kill you.”

Katosan smiled slightly, inclining his head in a mocking show of deference. “If you kill me, you won’t hear what it is I’ve come to tell you.”

“And why would I care?”

Kagome’s soft gasp was audible to both men as the miko entered the room. InuYasha grabbed her hand and dragged her behind his back. Katosan’s smile broadened. “Miko . . . how nice to see you again.” Eyes flicking back to meet InuYasha’s gaze full-on, Katosan’s smile took on a slight edge, a sneering quality. “So you’ve chosen her as your mate? I do hope you don’t come to regret that.”

“Like I would,” InuYasha rumbled, his tone low yet somehow more menacing because of it. “Just tell me what you want.”’

Katosan chuckled nastily.   “Why, indeed?”

“You tell me.”

Katosan shrugged. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Damn you,” InuYasha hissed. “Just tell me what the fuck you want.”

With a sigh, Katosan relented. “Very well. You should do something about that impatience of yours. In any case, I come to offer you warning.”

“Warning? What makes you think that I’ll listen to you?”

“It’s about your kitsune.”

InuYasha’s eyes flared wide in surprise, in alarm. “Shippou.”

Katosan shrugged indifferently. “Is that his name?”

InuYasha growled. Kagome put a hand on his back. He could sense her anxiety. “What about him?”

“Do you care so much, InuYasha-sama?”

“Damn it . . . .” Tired of the game of cat and mouse, InuYasha moved to draw Tetsusaiga.

Katosan chuckled again. “So you do care, after all. Your kit is in danger.”

“Where?” Kagome cut in as she tried to run around InuYasha.   He caught her and pulled her back again. “Where is he?”

“Right where you left him, Miko.”

“In the past?” InuYasha demanded. Kagome’s fear rose.

“Did you really think that a weak child such as he would live through to this time?” Katosan bowed again as he slowly strode from the room.

“Why are you warning us?” Kagome called after him.

Katosan stopped but didn’t turn back. “I was asked to deliver the message.”

InuYasha glanced at Kagome’s pale, peaked face. She shot him a wild-eyed look just before he shifted his gaze back to the inu-youkai. “Who sent you?”

Katosan turned his head enough to glance at InuYasha out of the corner of his eye. “It matters not, who sent me. Suffice it to say that if you fail to reach your friend in time, he will die . . . and I was asked to say one more thing to you: Mamorikoi.”

“What does that mean?”

Katosan shrugged offhandedly. “Figure it out, InuYasha-sama. Surely you aren’t so foolish that you can’t?”

“Mamorikoi?” InuYasha mumbled to himself. ‘ _To protect what you cherish? What the hell does that mean?_ ’

Kagome ran out the back door as InuYasha watched Katosan leave. ‘ _Damn it! We can’t go back! How the hell are we supposed to save Shippou?_ ’

“InuYasha!” Kagome screamed.

InuYasha sprang into action, sprinting toward the sound of her distraught cry.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“You can’t really blame him,” Sango remarked as she and Miroku stepped out of the forest. “He misses them. They were like his family.

Miroku shook his head and scowled. “I don’t blame him,” he said slowly. “He knows better than to go running off alone. He snuck out in the middle of the night. He can’t be so careless! He’s just a child.”

She knew that Miroku was simply concerned about the child’s welfare. Still Shippou and Miroku had been butting heads since InuYasha and Kagome’s mysterious disappearance, and Sango was starting to feel like the liaison, keeping the two from coming apart at the seams over it all. “That’s the point, Miroku. Shippou’s still a child. He’s mourning their loss as much as he would if they had died. Please understand . . . .”

“Sango, I do understand. I am simply saying that Shippou needs to know that he cannot just take off in the middle of the night when no one knows where he’s gone—though we have a fair enough idea—this time.”

“Who’s that?” Sango asked as she stopped short and put a hand on Miroku’s arm to stop him.

A youkai bent over near where the well had once stood. He seemed to be speaking to someone . . . .

The two exterminators’ alarmed expressions met. “Shippou!”

Shippou’s cry was magnified in Miroku’s ears as he and Sango ran forward. The youkai stopped, a sneering, gloating smile twisting his cold features with ruthless malignance. “Bring me InuYasha and his bitch or the kit dies.”

“InuYasha isn’t here,” Miroku answered evenly. “Let Shippou go.”

The youkai chuckled. “Remove your hand from your weapon, exterminator. I fear nothing from the likes of you.” His hand tightened on Shippou’s neck. Shippou whined. Face ashen and eyes squeezed closed, the kit didn’t even struggle against the inu-youkai.

“Shippou!” Grimacing, Miroku let his hand drop from the sickle hanging from his belt. Sango winced and uttered a small cry. “Who are you?”

“My name is Norimitsu, not that it is of any real concern to you. Now tell me where InuYasha can be found.”

“Not where,” Miroku mumbled, “when . . . .”

Sango leaned closer to Miroku. “He’s the one that had the diary . . . Shippou!”

“I know . . . .”

Norimitsu tossed his raven black hair over his shoulder as he glowered at the humans. “I grow weary of this! Tell me where to find InuYasha and his bitch or you’ll die just like this . . . .”

“No!” Sango gasped. Time seemed to slow as the youkai lifted Shippou higher. Shippou’s legs and arms flailed helplessly, as though the way he was being held hindered his ability to move. Large emerald eyes flashed open, wide in terror, in fear. A look that tore Miroku open inside, the consuming terror, the knowing gaze of one who knew he was going to die.

“Shippou!” Miroku shrieked as he drew his sickle, as he felt complete rage engulf him, a fury he’d never felt before.

Shippou’s scream pierced the air as the youkai’s poison claws ripped his tiny stomach. The sudden, wet gurgle that seeped from the kit’s lungs as they filled with blood repulsed Miroku yet dragged him forward. Sango and Miroku’s outraged cries mingled as they rushed forward. Norimitsu tossed Shippou’s limp body aside with a maniacal laugh.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“InuYasha!” Kagome shrieked as she stood outside the well-house. Seconds later, the hanyou slammed through the back door. Racing to her side, he stared, too. “What’s happening?” she whispered with a shake of her head.

Sapphire light radiated out of the well house, centered in the spot where the well used to stand.   InuYasha started to pull Kagome back. Tetsusaiga suddenly throbbed on his hip. “Tetsusaiga?”

“ ‘ _To protect that which you cherish_ ’ . . .” Kagome whispered. “InuYasha! Can that be what Totosai meant? Mamorikoi? That you had to have someone you wanted to protect?”

InuYasha’s expression was confused as he stared at Kagome. Tetsusaiga pulsed again. “Shippou . . . .”

The third time Tetsusaiga palpitated, InuYasha dashed forward, pulling out Tetsusaiga and slicing through the barrier over the door to the well-house.

A dark blue vortex swirled in the middle of the ground, in the center where the well used to stand. Staring from the swirling mist to the glowing sword, InuYasha nodded.

“Do it,” Kagome murmured as she stepped back.

InuYasha nodded, bringing Tetsusaiga over his head. He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath as he concentrated on Shippou’s face, on Kagome’s love. ‘ _To protect that which I cherish_ ,’ he thought as beads of sweat broke out on his brow. ‘ _Kagome and Shippou . . . Sango and Miroku . . . Tetsusaiga . . . ._ ’ Tightening his grip, bringing the blade down in the center of the fissure, InuYasha bellowed, “ _Mamorikoi!_ ”

An eruption of light and reverberation shot out of the blade.   The earth trembled beneath the impact as the shockwaves zipped away in ripples. The world moaned and swayed under the power of the strike as an explosion of light and dark beamed up from Tetsusaiga, encompassing InuYasha and Kagome in the brilliant light.

InuYasha’s feet lifted off the ground, sank through the hole that opened beneath. “Kagome!” he called as he turned.

“I’m here!” she called back. Her hand wrapped around his arm as he held the sword, and they fell through the new time slip together. “Was that it? Mamorikoi?”

He nodded as he let go of Tetsusaiga to wrap an arm around Kagome’s shoulders. “I think . . . yeah.”

Fearful eyes met his. “Tell me we’re not too late,” she begged quietly.

His hold on her tightened. “We can’t be too late,” he mumbled. “Hold on, Shippou . . . . I won’t fail you . . . .”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Mamorikoi_** :  
>  “ _To Protect that which you Cherish_ ”
> 
>  ** _Mamoru_** _Protect_ .  
>  ** _Koishii_** _cherished_ .
> 
> Special thanks to BakaBokken for her assistance in choosing this name . . .


	70. Resurgence

Norimitsu threw his head back and laughed as the exterminators rushed at him. “You _killed_ him!” Sango shrieked, hurling Hiraikotsu at the youkai.

With a blurred flash of his claws, Norimitsu sent Hiraikotsu crashing into the ground, split down the middle.

Miroku grabbed her arm, pulled her back. “Check on him!” he demanded as he steered her toward the fallen child. Sango looked like she wanted to argue but she nodded. Miroku heaved the sickle. Whizzing through the air, the blade circled in a broad arc.

Norimitsu retreated in time to avoid the oncoming weapon. Miroku jerked it back as Norimitsu laughed again. “No mortal can kill me!” he scoffed. “Not with your barbaric toys. You wish to be next?” He lunged at Miroku.

Miroku barely had time to react. Diving to the side and rolling back to his feet, he faced the youkai once more. “I won’t lose to the likes of you!” Miroku promised as he held the sickle in one hand and the metal ball in the other. The two stalked each other, side-stepping in a small circle, one waiting for the other to attack.

Norimitsu lunged forward as Miroku unleashed the scythe. The blade whipped past the youkai, nicking his ear. Norimitsu’s claws ripped into Miroku’s arm as the monk-exterminator tried to spin to the side.   With a sharp hiss of pain, he fell to the ground and rolled onto his back just in time to block Norimitsu with the chain, stretched taut between his hands. Gritting his teeth, grimacing in his effort to hold off the powerful youkai, he heard Sango scream his name in a tear-choked voice just before the tremendous crack, like a bolt of lightning touching down, split the earth behind them, showering them with dirt and grass.

Norimitsu suddenly leaped away as Miroku used his feet to push himself up, gasping for air as he held onto his injured arm. Unable to believe what his eyes saw, he blinked once, twice, before he could manage an incredulous laugh. “Good timing,” he remarked weakly.

“Keh, monk. I’m here now, ain’t I?”

Kagome choked back a sob as she tore away from InuYasha and sprinted to Sango and Shippou.

InuYasha stared at Norimitsu, expression unreadable, absolute rage unmistakable despite the strangely controlled demeanor. What had happened to the hanyou? Miroku shook his head, staving off a wave of dizziness. “Good thing there’s a monk here, Norimitsu. You’re going to die.”

Kagome’s wail told the story, as far as InuYasha was concerned. InuYasha growled low, ears flattening, lips drawn back in a vicious snarl as Miroku felt Sango’s hands, trying to help him stand. “Shippou?”

Sango’s eyes filled with more tears as she slowly shook her head and helped him out of the way.

InuYasha didn’t move, didn’t turn his head, didn’t blink. The only signs that he had heard the exchange were the flicking of his ears, the blazing fire that burned brighter behind his amber gaze.

“You’ll be next to join him, InuYasha . . . did you love the kit as your own?”

“Damn you,” InuYasha growled, raising Tetsusaiga level with Norimitsu’s chest.

“Tetsusaiga,” Miroku mumbled as he stared at InuYasha, awash in the same blue aura as the sword—and as Kagome. Then he noticed that Sango and he were also glowing, though not as brightly as the others.

Sango looked back and gasped. The sapphire blade crackled with power, with energy. As though the sword had a mind of its own, it pulsed and shook as InuYasha held it.

“Shippou, I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry! No, you can’t . . . no . . . _. No_!” Kagome wailed, cradling the kit’s body against her chest. Shoulders shaking, the miko buried her face in Shippou’s hair.

Miroku pulled away from Sango and stumbled over to the miko. He hugged her as best as he could. Kagome didn’t seem to notice.

“Why him? I’m the one you’re after. Why Shippou?” InuYasha demanded, his voice rough, ragged.

Norimitsu scoffed. “You sent the kit to steal the diary? You thought I wouldn’t know? You are more of a fool than I thought you were. Prepare to die!”

“I’m not going to die, bastard, but you are!” InuYasha ran forward, slamming Tetsusaiga into the earth. The flames shot out in the Kaze no Kizu.

Norimitsu jumped out of the way. Shaking his head slowly, he straightened up and stared at InuYasha, loathing etched into his features. “And all that waste was for nothing.”

“What?” InuYasha demanded in a hushed growl.

Norimitsu grinned. “That diary . . . you didn’t look at it?” His smile grew even smugger, nastier. “It was a fake. Your little kitsune died for nothing.”

“ _Damn_ you!” InuYasha snarled, charging forward blindly, furiously. Norimitsu’s twisted laughter filled the air as the sword hummed and crackled, pulsed and whined. Swinging Tetsusaiga in a wide arc, InuYasha bellowed, “ _Mamorikoi!_ ” at the top of his lungs as the sizzling wave of sapphire light exploded from the blade and coursed toward Norimitsu.

The youkai jumped back to avoid the blast but caught the force against his right thigh. With a grunt of pain as the blast hit hard, Norimitsu took flight, vanishing again like he had on the night he tried to attack Kagome.

InuYasha didn’t wait to see where Norimitsu had gone. ‘ _I’ll hunt him down . . . but for now, I have to . . . Shippou! You can’t . . . .’_ Turning toward the sounds of his friends’ distress, toward the kit . . . he had been too late? Too late . . . . _‘Damn it! Damn it, you runt! You can’t be . . . ._ ’ Sheathing Tetsusaiga, he turned and sprinted to Kagome. She cradled the broken body of the young kit to her breast, sobbing, wailing, crying as though her heart was broken.

Sango sobbed without making a sound. Miroku looked as though he was going to be sick. InuYasha shook his head, slowly backing away. Throwing his head back, bellowing at the top of his lungs, he wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. His heart just told him that it couldn’t end, not like this, not for Shippou . . . . “Sesshoumaru! Damn it, Sesshoumaru! _Where are you?_ ”

“InuYasha?” Miroku said, struggling to his feet. He swayed just a little, weakened by his blood-loss. “Sesshoumaru isn’t here . . . .”

InuYasha glared at the monk. Anger was easier to deal with. Anger didn’t hurt . . . . “I fucking _know_ that! I don’t care where the hell _he_ is! I want his fucking _sword!_ ”

“Tenseiga?” Sango whispered.

Miroku shook his head slowly. “It’ll take days, InuYasha, _days_ to get to him . . . It’ll be too late.” Clearing his throat before he could finish, Miroku blinked furiously, staving back tears of his own. “Let him go, InuYasha . . . you tried to save him. We all did.”

“No, damn it!” InuYasha snarled. “Fuck, no! You can give up if you want to, but I’m not!”

InuYasha turned on his heel, started away, pacing through the grass as he scanned the horizon. ‘ _The bastard always shows up at the worst times . . . why can’t he just show up now?_ ’ Clutching the fang necklace—the one Kagome had coerced him into wearing, InuYasha grimaced. “ . . . _Sesshoumaru!_ ” he called again.

“ _No_ ,” Kagome rasped out, drawing InuYasha’s attention. Turning back to face the others, InuYasha’s gaze narrowed as irrational fury welled up in his chest.

Miroku was praying over Shippou’s body, performing the rites to send on the child’s spirit to the next life. ‘ _Not even Tenseiga can save him . . . not if Miroku . . ._ ’ Streaking across the field, InuYasha barreled into the monk, slamming him against the ground with InuYasha’s claws around his neck. “Save your rites, damn you! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“It has to be done, InuYasha!” Miroku yelled back. “You know it does!”

Eyes pulsing from golden to red then back with the beat of his heart, InuYasha struggled to control his need, his desire to tear into the monk. “The hell it does! I’m not letting him go like that! Shippou can’t die like this!”

“InuYasha, he’s already gone! You can’t save him! He’s already—”

“ _Shut up!_ ” InuYasha snarled, drawing back his hand, cracking his knuckles. “Shut up or I’ll—”

“Kagome!” Sango called out suddenly.

InuYasha stopped with his hand drawn back, staring in shock as Kagome darted across the field with Shippou cradled in her arms. She didn’t wait, and she didn’t look back as she dropped into the gaping maw. Her sobs drifted back to him, and he leapt to his feet as the hole in the ground filled with sapphire light.

Sango ran to the hole, stared down in shock, in disbelief. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered, as she wiped her cheeks.   Turning her face slowly to stare at both InuYasha as well as Miroku, who had managed to sit up.

InuYasha ran to the hole, afraid to look inside, afraid of what he’d see. In the darkness, in the half-light of the newly reopened well pit, InuYasha was shocked.

Kagome had made it through the time slip.

Shippou had, too.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome stared at the steep walls with rising panic surging in her chest. Her one thought was that they knew where to find Sesshoumaru on this side of the timeslip. Now that she was here, though, she didn’t know how she’d get out of the well. The stone walls were now just earth, and there wasn’t a thing Kagome could use to climb out.

“Hold on, Shippou . . . I . . .” she whispered, fighting back her overwhelming grief, fighting to stay in control. He looked so peaceful, like he was asleep. The warmth of his blood saturated her blouse. Kagome held him tighter, unwilling to let the little body grow cold.

With a gasp, she stepped back as InuYasha appeared through the slip beside her.

With a dark frown, he glared at her before sweeping her into his arms and pushing off the bottom of the well. “You should have waited for me, wench,” he mumbled as they landed outside the hole. He didn’t set her back on her feet as he sprinted out of the well-house and onto the top of the shrine.

“Hurry,” she begged as she hugged Shippou tighter. “Do you think Sesshoumaru—?”

“Keh! He will or I’ll kill him,” InuYasha snarled as he leapt from building to building. “He’s got to.”

Turning her face against him, Kagome’s sobs were muffled. Tightening his hold on her as he pushed himself faster, InuYasha sped along the buildings, no more than a whisper of movement against the hazy grayish sky.

He dropped to the ground in an alley and sighed. “Here,” he said, yanking off his haori. “Wrap the kit up in that.”

Kagome did, absently realizing what InuYasha wasn’t telling her. They had reached the area of town where they had no choice but to walk the rest of the way to Sesshoumaru’s home, and while he was hidden by the fang necklace Leikizu had given him, Shippou was not . . . .

Leading her down the alley and onto the sidewalk, InuYasha moved as quickly as he dared without drawing undue attention from other pedestrians. A few turned to stare—probably because of his silver hair—but no one bothered them as they pushed through the wrought iron gates and ran up the sidewalk to Sesshoumaru’s door. ‘ _No one notices that I’m covered with blood?_ ’ she wondered in a distracted sort of way as the daze of merciful shock cushioned her from the reality of her loss.

As before, InuYasha didn’t knock as he threw his body against the door. It slammed open as he started bellowing for his brother despite the scolding that came from Sesshoumaru’s butler. InuYasha pushed the butler aside and yelled louder.

Nibori stepped out of the living room with a concerned frown. He stopped short, gaping at Kagome. “Blood?” he questioned.

“Where’s Sesshoumaru?” InuYasha demanded.

Nibori led the way to the study and lifted his hand to knock. InuYasha shoved him aside and pummeled that door, too.

“I see I’m going to have to give you lessons on etiquette,” Sesshoumaru remarked dryly but frowned as he glanced up from the computer. “You reek of death . . . .”

Before InuYasha could say anything, Kagome brushed past him and ran over to the tai-youkai. “Please,” she whispered, tears gathering in her eyes again as she held out Shippou’s tiny body. “Please . . . .”

Sesshoumaru’s gaze narrowed as he slowly stood and rounded his desk.   Lifting the haori that wrapped the kitsune, he stared without changing his expression. Golden eyes flicked coolly to stare at his half-brother. “Did you not receive my warning?”

“I got it,” InuYasha growled. “By the time we got through the well . . . .” He drew a deep breath, looking away as he swallowed hard. His eyes locked with Sesshoumaru’s again, and he straightened his back proudly. “Would you save him?”

Sesshoumaru grew pensive as he dropped the edge of the haori and wandered to the windows behind the desk. He stared outside for long moments before turning back to face them once more, stuffing his hand into his pocket, his gaze contemplating, ironic. “Some lives aren’t meant to be saved, InuYasha. Surely you know this better than anyone.”

InuYasha stepped up beside Kagome as she choked back a sob. She turned to him, burying her face against his chest as InuYasha gritted his teeth in an effort to keep from losing what was left of his temper. “Shippou wasn’t _supposed_ to die or you wouldn’t have sent Katosan.” Sesshoumaru didn’t confirm or deny his brother’s assessment. InuYasha sighed. “Please, Sesshoumaru.”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “Why should I do this?” he asked simply.

InuYasha clenched his teeth together so tightly his jaw hurt. “Because,” he ground out, “our old man would have done it. You know he would have.”

A wry smile, a vague stare, a moment of pain that was no more than a fleeting thought passed over Sesshoumaru’s features. As though he knew something that he never wanted to divulge, he stared at the room beyond Kagome and InuYasha, as though he was seeing something distant, something past.

“I’m not asking you for me,” InuYasha rasped out, locking eyes with his stoic half-brother. “I’m asking for Shippou because you’re the only one who can. Please save him.”

He shook his head slowly as he stared at InuYasha. “I could,” he agreed slowly. “The question is if I _will_.”

 

 

 

 

 


	71. To Live and Let Die

“You bastard,” InuYasha growled as his disbelieving gaze narrowed on his brother. “What the fuck is wrong with you? If you—”

“You’re hardly in a position to cast aspersions,” Sesshoumaru reminded him with a raised eyebrow.

“You want me to beg?” InuYasha snarled, letting go of Kagome and stalking toward his brother.   “I’ll beg. I’ll _plead_. Just save him.”

Sesshoumaru’s cold gaze flicked over InuYasha’s face, a trace of recognition in the slight narrowing of his eyes. As though he was borne away to a time long past, as though InuYasha’s heartfelt entreaty was something that was all-too familiar, Sesshoumaru’s eyes seemed sad, angry. “Why do you care so much? He’s just a kitsune. He’s just a child. Leave the world of the living to the living. Leave the dead in the world of the dead.”

“How can you say that?” Both men turned to stare at Kagome. Tears streaming down her face, her gaze was fierce as she met Sesshoumaru’s without flinching. “He’s a child! And what about Rin? You saved her before. It was the same thing. There wasn’t a reason for her death, just like there isn’t one now. How can you say to leave the dead in the world of the dead?”

The vaguest of nods from the inu-youkai as he stared at Kagome, the acknowledgement of her words. “I saved Rin. I watched her grow. I watched her age, and in the end, I watched her die.”

“That was different,” InuYasha insisted. “She was human. You knew that would happen.”

“And that changes nothing, InuYasha. She died old and frail . . . perhaps it would have been best, to let her go when she had been a child. Perhaps it would have been better to let her die with her child’s naiveté, her innocence . . . her unerring belief that the world didn’t have to be a terrible place.”

“Do you believe that?” Kagome challenged, viciously biting back her tears, her pain. “Rin’s family was killed by bandits. Rin, herself, was killed by a pack of wolves. She saw that. She _knew_ the world wasn’t as safe and happy as it should have been. You brought her back, and _you_ gave her that security. You protected her, and you restored that belief that the world wasn’t ugly. Can’t you do the same for Shippou? Can’t you?”

Sesshoumaru stared at Kagome as though seeing her for the first time. Precious seconds ticked away as she stubbornly held the kitsune tighter in her grasp. The scent of Shippou’s blood was everywhere, strong enough that Kagome could smell it, too. She refused to give in to the pain, the loss. Daring Sesshoumaru to argue with her now, she blinked back tears, refusing to succumb to the grief when there still might be some hope.

InuYasha cleared his throat, drawing Sesshoumaru’s unfathomable gaze once more. “So what’ll it be, Sesshoumaru? Will you save him?”

“Why did you choose to come to me now? Why did you not seek me out in the past?”

“It would have taken too long to find you,” Kagome whispered, her gaze dropping to the child in her arms—the child of her heart if not even really her own. “Please . . . you can’t let him . . . _please!_ ”

“Do you think it is as simple as that?” Sesshoumaru countered coldly. “There’s no telling whether or not Tenseiga would choose to save him, in the first place. Are you prepared to find out that your kitsune is meant to die?”

Kagome choked back a sob.

“Listen, you self-righteous bastard! Who the hell gave you the right to decide—?”

“Sesshoumaru! What are you thinking?” Leikizu demanded in a quiet hiss as she strode into the study. Carrying Tenseiga in its scabbard, she brushed past her son and stomped to her mate, thrusting the sword under his nose. “You have the chance now. Save their kit, or so help me . . . .”

Sesshoumaru stared at his mate, anger delineated in his stance, in his eyes, in the slight furrowing of his brow. “Lei, you know as well as I that it isn’t that simple. Just because you wish it to be so doesn’t mean—”

“And if it were Nibori? Would you attempt to save your son?”

“Be not daft, woman! You know I would!” Sesshoumaru yelled, showing more emotion in those words than Kagome could ever recall having heard from him before.

“Then save the kitsune!”

“He is not their flesh and blood!”

“He might as well be,” Kagome mumbled miserably, tightening her grip on the tiny body.

“He’s been mine since we took him in,” InuYasha snarled, advancing on his brother, flexing his claws, ready to tear into Sesshoumaru if he had to.

“And it doesn’t matter when you love a child like your own!” Leikizu maintained, her eyes flashing red, glowing bright, countering her husband with the force of her predecessor. In that moment, it was clear to everyone that Leikizu truly was Kagura’s reincarnation.

“It is not that simple, Lei,” Sesshoumaru maintained. “He is not their child.”

“If not their child, then whose? For the love of heaven, Sesshoumaru, they are the only parents he’s had for the last three years, and you, yourself, told me that! Wasn’t that the reason you asked Katosan to go to them? Wasn’t it?”

Sesshoumaru stared at his wife as precious seconds ticked away. Kagome, unable to withstand the anxiety, the all-consuming worry, sank down in one of the plush chairs. Nibori put a hand on her shoulder, seeking to comfort her. InuYasha growled and stomped over, pushing his nephew’s hand away with a warning look.

Standing toe to toe with the Inu no Taisho, Leikizu stood her ground. “You failed once, Sesshoumaru. Now fix it before it’s too late.”

He narrowed his gaze on his wife but finally nodded, taking Tenseiga from her and drawing the sword. Holding the blade up to his face, he stared at it for a long time. A hundred emotions passed through his eyes as he focused on the blade. Kagome stared in silence as he frowned. Sadness, melancholy, bitterness mingled with the sense that there had been something very, very wrong, and maybe it was something that she was better off not knowing. Glancing at Leikizu before slowly and deliberately stepping around the desk, Sesshoumaru stood before Kagome, Tenseiga resting point-down against the floor.

“Uncover the kit,” he said softly in a tone that Kagome had never heard before. InuYasha obviously hadn’t, either. He looked stunned when Kagome glanced up at him. Staring at Sesshoumaru with an odd sense of respect, InuYasha nodded once toward Kagome without taking his eyes off his half-brother.

With a deep breath, Kagome let the haori drop on the floor. Whimpering at the grayed skin, the blood soaked garments that covered the kitsune, she closed her eyes, bracing herself, then opened them and waited.

Sesshoumaru lifted the blade, waiting for a sign that the sword wished to save the child. A pulse beat, then two, and he nodded his head once.

Kagome winced as the blade passed through InuYasha’s arm, through her chest, cutting the air above Shippou. She heard the agonized cries of the soul bearers as they dispersed and died even though she couldn’t see them. The blade didn’t leave a scratch in its wake, and Kagome gasped as Shippou stirred in her arms.

“Sh . . . Shippou?” Kagome whispered, hardly daring to believe as the kitsune blinked groggily and opened his eyes, as though he had simply been sleeping. “Shippou!” Picking him up despite his sleepy protests to cuddle against her shoulder, the tears that filled Kagome’s eyes this time were tears of relief.

“What happened?” Shippou muttered with a wide yawn. Suddenly he gasped and leaned away from her, eyes widening, rounding in wonder. “Kagome! I didn’t think I’d ever see you again! The well closed, and—where are we? Why are you crying?”

Kagome gave him a squeeze then let him down since he was struggling to get loose and explore this new place.   The blood on her clothes was gone. Shippou’s clothes looked untouched, too. The healing power of Tenseiga had wiped away any traces of the sorrow, of the pain of the kit’s death.

She was surprised to see Sesshoumaru close his eyes, letting the flat of the sword’s blade rest against his forehead before he resheathed it and handed it back to Leikizu. The woman’s eyes were bright with tears, and she kissed Sesshoumaru’s cheek before hurrying away to put up Tenseiga.

“Why _did_ you send Katosan to warn us?” InuYasha asked quietly.

Sesshoumaru affected a bored expression and waved his hand in dismissal. “Does it matter? Your kitsune would be dead had it not been for the warning.”

InuYasha nodded slowly. “I know.” Staring at Shippou, who was demonstrating his kitsune tricks on Nibori, the hanyou blinked rapidly. Kagome smiled. InuYasha might not say it, but she knew exactly what he was feeling. It was way too close.

Leikizu breezed back into the study with a bright smile. “Nibori, why don’t you take Shippou to the kitchen? The poor dear looks like he’s starving.”

Kagome sighed. Shippou tended not to eat whenever he was upset. It was a good bet that he hadn’t eaten much in the last few days. Shippou shot Kagome a questioning look. She nodded and watched the child run off after Nibori.

“There is the small matter of payment,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he leaned back against his desk.

“ _Payment?_ ” InuYasha echoed. “What the fuck do you mean, payment? For using Tenseiga? The sword you got from _our_ old man?”

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly. “I was busy working here, baka, if you didn’t notice. Your intrusion has sorely messed up my schedule. I demand just compensation for the disturbance.”

“You hella nasty—I should have known you were still the bastard you’ve always been,” InuYasha fumed.

“InuYasha, we do owe him,” Kagome cut in. “Shippou . . . you wanted to save him, too, right?”

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue the point on principle but he finally rolled his eyes as he folded his arms together. “What the hell do you want then?”

Sesshoumaru cracked a sly smile. “Give me your fang.”

“Again?” InuYasha asked incredulously, reaching for his necklace. “What the hell did you give it to me for if you just wanted it back, bastard?”

“Not _that_ fang, baka.”

Slowly dropping his hands away, InuYasha narrowed his suspicious gaze on his brother. “I don’t think I like where you’re going with this,” he growled. “Give me one good reason to let you pull another of my fangs.”

Sesshoumaru’s chuckle was downright nasty. “Isn’t your _reason_ in the kitchen with Nibori as we speak?”

A low growl greeted that assessment, and InuYasha narrowed his gaze at his demented half-brother. “Fucking fine. Make it fast.”

Kagome winced as Sesshoumaru deliberately took his time yanking the fang. To his credit, InuYasha didn’t even flinch as the youkai wrenched it out of his gum. With a sickening pop, the fang broke free. Sesshoumaru stared at it for a moment as he stepped back. Leikizu offered InuYasha a bottle of water. Though the hanyou was careful to keep his expression blank, Kagome knew it had to hurt. No doubt about it, she’d have to baby him later . . . .

“Deplorable,” Sesshoumaru remarked with a slight curling of his top lip. “You slobbered all over it, baka.” That said, the youkai strode from the room, leaving InuYasha and Kagome alone with Leikizu.

“You love that kit, don’t you?” Leikizu asked with a smile.

“Keh,” InuYasha managed, careful to keep his mouth closed. Kagome winced again. Yep, definite babying . . . .

“I know he’s not really mine,” Kagome said softly, “but it’s like he is. I can’t remember not having him around. I love him . . . .”

“Sesshoumaru has trouble expressing his emotions,” Leikizu apologized. “There are moments when I think that he has to be the most anal-retentive being on earth . . . .”

InuYasha nearly smiled. “Just a plain old bastard, if you ask me.”

“He saved Shippou, though, and he didn’t really have to,” Kagome remarked, defending the youkai who had saved the child. She didn’t care about his reason. It was enough for her that he had done it at all.

Leikizu smiled wanly. “I think maybe he felt otherwise.”

Kagome frowned. “Why?”

Leikizu shook her head. “He had a promise to keep.”

“Keh. Sesshoumaru doesn’t make promises.”

“To whom?” Kagome asked, ignoring InuYasha’s bleak assessment.

Leikizu shrugged. “To himself.”

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sesshoumaru stared at the fang in his palm. All right, so he had to admit that a small part of him rather enjoyed the extraction. It never ceased to amaze him, how InuYasha would rather die than admit that he needed help, especially when that help came from Sesshoumaru.

He frowned. ‘ _This one thing_ ,’ he thought as he turned the fang over. ‘ _This one thing, and the rest shall be left to InuYasha . . . ._ ’

Closing his hand around the fang, Sesshoumaru stepped into the kitchen to find Nibori sitting at the table with a couple of boxes of pocky and two glasses of milk as the kitsune devoured the treats with reckless abandon.

“You know, Mother may skin me for not making you eat something a bit more substantial than this,” Nibori remarked ruefully.

Shippou waved his little hands. “But pocky is food,” he argued.

Nibori chuckled. “So it is.”

“Know you why you’re here, Shippou?” Sesshoumaru asked as he approached the table.

Chocolate-covered-Shippou swallowed and nodded slowly. “I was . . . dead, wasn’t I?”

“So you lied to InuYasha and the miko?”

Shippou shook his head. “I don’t want to make Kagome cry anymore. She’s mortal. Mortals are weak, InuYasha said.”

Sesshoumaru conceded with a curt nod. “Some are, some aren’t. The miko isn’t nearly as weak as InuYasha would have you believe.”

Shippou sighed, gaze dropping as his shoulders slumped. Nibori shot his father a discerning look. Sesshoumaru nodded as Nibori got up and slipped out of the room.

“Tell me, Shippou . . . what is it you wish?”

A tiny hand dashed over the kit’s eyes, wiping away tears as he drew a deep breath. “I just want a family. I want to be a family with InuYasha and Kagome,” he admitted quietly. “But I don’t think InuYasha wants me.”

“He brought you to me.”

Shippou’s chin lifted, a hopeful wonder easing the worry in his expression. “He did, didn’t he?”

Sesshoumaru pushed one of the packages of pocky toward the kitsune. “And if I told you I could give you this family you wish for, would you want it?”

Shippou stared at him as though he wasn’t sure if he ought to trust him or not. “Why would you want to?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “I have reasons, though none more worthy than another.” He leaned in closer, studying a hair on Shippou’s shoulder. Slowly pulling it loose, he sniffed it carefully and made a face. “Ah, perfect. One of the miko’s hairs, though it smells more like that half-breed brother of mine than it does like her.” He sighed and shook his head. “This will have to do. Shippou, give me one of your hairs.”

Shippou frowned but did as he was instructed. He watched in silence as Sesshoumaru wrapped the hairs around the fang and as a dim green light melted the hairs into the gleaming tooth. With his index finger, he drilled a hole through it before stringing one of his own hairs through the fang. “By the edict of the Inu no Taisho, let it be so. I bind this family with my blessing,” Sesshoumaru said as he dropped the necklace over the kitsune’s head.

Shippou stared at the fang with a cautious smile. He lifted it in his tiny hand and brushed at his misting eyes with his free hand. “So . . . ?”

“Do not remove it. If you do, you run the risk of breaking the newly forged bond. I leave it to your discretion, when you tell your parents. Remember, Shippou, a youkai always shows proper respect to their parents. Addressing InuYasha as ‘Father’ ought to do.”

Shippou frowned as he dug into the pocky again. “InuYasha will hate that,” he remarked.

Sesshoumaru smiled slightly. “So he will.”

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Shippou gasped and stared, eyes wide, at the hustle and bustle of Tokyo as they walked back to the shrine. Leikizu had concealed Shippou with a temporary seal so that he looked human, and the kit wasn’t drawing nearly as much attention as InuYasha’s silvery hair was. Kagome gaped as two girls ran up and asked to touch his hair. Before she could decide whether or not she ought to be jealous, InuYasha had yelled a few obscenities that sent the girls running as he fought down a painfully dark flush.

“Do you think we can get back through the well?” InuYasha asked quietly as Shippou stared at modern Tokyo in silent awe.

Kagome had wondered that, herself. Had the warp only accepted Shippou because he had been dead at the time? Or had something changed when InuYasha had used Tetsusaiga to reopen the well? If it had somehow changed, what did that mean for the others? Could anyone who stumbled into the well use it as a gateway? She sighed. Her head hurt just thinking about it.

It had been hard enough to figure out before. As near as she could tell, it had always allowed her through, but only when she had possession of the Shikon no Tama or if she was returning to her time. InuYasha had been able to go through whenever he wished. Though others had tried whether by accident or by design to use the well, it wouldn’t allow anyone else through. But it had allowed Shippou through . . . .

“We have to try,” Kagome reasoned. “Sango and Miroku are probably worried sick, and we never did tell them about the jewel.”

“They know you purified it, Kagome . . . .” A puzzled expression surfaced on the kitsune’s face, and he stared from InuYasha to Kagome then back again. “How _did_ you come back? I remember, I went to the well in case you did . . . but I don’t remember after the youkai came after me.”

Kagome and InuYasha exchanged troubled looks. “I thought you’d like to see my time. You always said you wanted to,” she answered in the happiest tone she could muster. It wouldn’t do any good to tell Shippou the truth. She didn’t even want to remember it, herself, and judging from the look on InuYasha’s face, he didn’t, either.

“Oh . . . .” Luckily for them, Shippou was sidetracked. Running over to a store display window, the kitsune gasped and stared at toys.

“I can’t tell him,” Kagome admitted.

InuYasha nodded. “Yeah.” His gaze darkened as he watched Shippou. Hands and nose plastered against the glass window, the kit didn’t look like he was hearing a thing happening around him. “I’ll hunt down Norimitsu, and I swear I’ll kill him.”

Kagome swallowed hard, trying to forget what it felt like, to hold Shippou in her arms, to cradle him to her, knowing that he was dead. A shiver ran up her spine, and she cleared her throat. “Come on, Shippou. We’ve got to get moving. Miroku was injured, and I need to check on him.”

Shippou turned away from the window and sighed. “Can I come back with you more often? Since we’re fami— _familiar_ with getting through the well together now?”

She grinned. “You’d have to ask InuYasha.”

InuYasha snorted and started walking again. “Keh.”

Shippou smiled, as though he had a really great secret. Neither InuYasha nor Kagome noticed as they all headed for the shrine.

 

 

 

 

 


	72. Paying the Piper

“Shippou?” Sango gasped, staring at the child who bounded through the door of Kaede’s hut with a happy smile plastered to his face.

Miroku’s face paled despite the shocked smile. His arm was well bandaged, and he hugged Shippou, looking like he was ready to pass out from the surprise of seeing the kitsune, alive and well. Behind the kitsune, InuYasha frowned and shook his head, silently asking Sango and Miroku not to mention the incident. Both nodded in agreement.

“Kagome said you got hurt,” Shippou remarked as he skittered over to Miroku to inspect the bandages.

Miroku managed a weak grin. “I’ll live. Luckily it wasn’t so bad despite Norimitsu’s poison claws.

InuYasha snorted. “Keh. You’re so pathetic, Miroku. Heal already. It’s time to hunt some bastard.”

“I want to go,” Shippou remarked as he ran over and hopped up onto InuYasha’s shoulder.

“No.”

“But—”

Kagome caught the look on InuYasha’s face and intercepted the kitsune before the hanyou could dole out punishment for the perceived lack of respect. “InuYasha’s right, Shippou. It’d be too dangerous.”

Shippou stared at Kagome with a thoughtful frown before turning to stare at InuYasha. “But aren’t I safest with you and InuYasha?”

“As true as that may be, I’d be happier knowing you are safe here, with Kaede.”

Shippou sighed, obviously unhappy with the prospect of being left behind. “All right,” he muttered.

InuYasha sighed. “While the monk’s healing, you need to finish your training, Kagome,” he remarked with a slight sneer directed at Miroku for still being injured.

“So how were you able to find a way to return?” Sango asked as she checked Miroku’s dressing.

InuYasha sank down on the floor, his back to the others as Kagome knelt down to look at Miroku’s wound, too. “Tetsusaiga. It’s stronger than ever, if you didn’t notice.”

Kagome rolled her eyes at the unmistakable bragging in the hanyou’s tone. She grinned to herself as she dug out her first aid kit, glad that her friends had found her bag, after all.

“How did you accomplish that, InuYasha?” Miroku asked with a wince as Kagome sprayed antiseptic on the abrasions.

InuYasha’s ears twitched as his back straightened. “I figured it out, is all,” he grumbled.

“How did ye manage to purify the Shikon no Tama?” Kaede cut in.

Kagome dropped the spray can. InuYasha pretended not to have heard the question.

“That,” Miroku commented as he stared at Kagome with a mixture of surprise and amusement, “is a whole new shade of red . . . . Why is that, Kagome?”

“InuYasha?” Sango asked cautiously, leaning to the side to see a little bit of the hanyou’s face.

“We’re obviously missing something here, Sango,” Miroku remarked lightly.

“There!” Kagome announced with a nervous laugh as she put away the first aid kit. “You’ll be fine . . . just fine!”

Miroku and Sango exchanged confused looks with Kaede. “What are ye not saying, InuYasha?”

InuYasha snorted. “Dunno what you’re talking about,” he growled. “Anyway, nothing happened.”

“What do you mean, nothing happened? The sacred jewel couldn’t have just purified itself,” Miroku remarked.

“Why don’t ye tell us exactly what ye were about when the jewel was purified,” Kaede prompted.

Kagome stared at her hands and winced, her cheeks growing almost painfully hot. “What we were . . . ?”

“We weren’t doing anything special,” InuYasha cut in with a snarl.   “So back the fuck off!”

It didn’t matter that Kagome knew that InuYasha was just trying to shut them all up. His words still stung. She blinked back sudden tears. “Excuse me,” she rasped out as she shot to her feet and fled the hut.

Miroku stared suspiciously after the miko. “What _aren’t_ you telling us?” he asked quietly.

“I ain’t telling you anything you don’t need to know,” InuYasha growled.

“They’re mates,” Shippou said without looking up from his tablet of drawing paper.

“What?” three voices exclaimed in varying stages of shock.

InuYasha’s flush darkened. “Damn it—”

Miroku suddenly laughed. The harder he laughed, the redder InuYasha’s face grew, and the redder his face grew, the madder the hanyou became. “Are you trying to say . . .” Miroku managed between bouts of laughter, “that you were doing that when the jewel purified?”

When InuYasha didn’t answer, Miroku’s laughter escalated to the point that he wasn’t making a sound at all. more of an exhalation than an actual laugh, the monk was in serious danger of passing out from lack of oxygen—or from the very volatile hanyou who was glowering at him as though he’d rather sharpen his claws on Miroku than endure to any more of his teasing.

But when Sango and even Kaede burst into laughter, as well, InuYasha growled viciously and turned on his heel, leaving the rest of his supposed ‘friends’ to their amusement. ‘ _Kagome . . . where did she run off to now?_ ’ Sniffing the air, InuYasha leaped off toward his forest, hot on the trail of his mate’s scent.

Miroku finally wound down to chuckles, wiping his eyes free of the laughter-induced tears. “I suppose I’ll have to apologize for that later,” Miroku remarked with another chuckle.

Sango shook her head, unable to hide her lingering smile. “I’ve never heard of such a thing . . . is that even possible?”

Kaede nodded slowly. “Certainly. The union of two souls is, in and of itself, a ritual of purification.”

Unable to help himself, Miroku flopped onto his back as laughter took control of him once more. “Did you see their faces?” he gasped out, clutching his stomach as he rolled from side to side in his amusement.

“Miroku, if you make fun of them, you may not live to see our wedding,” Sango warned. “InuYasha hadn’t ever taken well to teasing . . . .”

Miroku laughed even harder. “I know . . . but their faces! So _red!_ ”

                                                                        

Sango tried not to laugh again. She really did. But Miroku was right. The memories of the nearly crimson faces were almost too much to think about without wanting to laugh. She giggled. Kaede’s deeper chuckling added to it. Shippou stared at all of them as though they’d lost their minds.

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

‘ _How could he?_ ’ Kagome fumed as she ran through the forest. She realized that he hadn’t _really_ meant what he’d said. Common logic assured her of that. Still, she couldn’t quite help the anger, the upset, that InuYasha could sound so gruff, so callous about something that she thought was so beautiful, so untainted.

Add to that, the embarrassment of exactly what they had been doing when the jewel had purified, and Kagome was certain that she was going to die of angry mortification before it was all said and done. ‘ _You’re upset because he didn’t say how wonderful it really was? But you know you’d be mad if he had done that, too . . . Face it, Kagome, there wasn’t a good answer for that, and you know it_.’

She made a face but kept running. Blinking in surprise as she stared up at Goshinboku, Kagome didn’t realize this was where she had headed. ‘ _Was it automatic?_ ’ she wondered. ‘ _Because this is where I first met InuYasha . . . ._ ’

With a disgusted sigh, Kagome sank down under the tender spring leaves. Sunshine filtered through the boughs, dappling her with sprinkles of light. ‘ _Rain would better suit my mood_ ,’ she thought with a grimace. Resting her chin on her raised knees, Kagome wrapped her arms around her legs and moaned softly. ‘ _Even if he didn’t really mean it, it was a really awful thing for him to have said_.’

“You aren’t allowed to take off by yourself, wench.”

Kagome didn’t even bother looking at InuYasha. He stood next to her, arms crossed, tapping his foot impatiently as she made her best effort to ignore him.

“What are you mad at me for?” he growled as he hunkered down next to her. “The monk was the one making all the stupid comments.”

She did look at him then. “Just him, huh?”

InuYasha’s ears flattened as his shoulders slumped. “You mean _that_? I didn’t mean it that way,” he grumbled, unable to meet her gaze.

She shook her head. “That really doesn’t make me feel much better.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the unmistakable blink, blink, and quickly looked away. “It’s not going to work, InuYasha. That really wasn’t nice.”

“Keh,” he snorted, giving up the ‘cute’ approach. “Did you want me to tell them? About us? Because _I_ don’t have a problem telling them. I figured _you_ did.”

Kagome could feel the flush creeping up her cheeks again. “I don’t have a problem telling them that at all,” she argued. “I just didn’t necessarily think that we needed to tell them _what_ we were doing when the jewel purified.”

“That’s what I said!”

“You didn’t . . . You said we weren’t doing anything _special!_ ”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” he bellowed. “I meant we weren’t doing anything that _they_ needed to hear about! How would that sound? I was claiming you as mine when the jewel decided it was pure . . . .”

Kagome counted to twenty in her head before she even dared answer. Stabbing him with a formidable glare, she slowly remarked, “And now all of Musashi has heard you.”

That shut him up—for about ten seconds. Face reddening, InuYasha pulled his pouting face and scrunched up his shoulders. “Like it matters. They’d all find out, anyway. That damn kitsune already told them that I claimed you.”

“How does he know?” Kagome asked, pressing her hands against her flushed cheeks.

“Keh! He’s got a nose, doesn’t he?”

She narrowed her gaze on him even more. “Well, duh! I’m not stupid, you know!”

“I never said you were!”

“You don’t have to _say_ it when you so eloquently _implied_ it!” she yelled back.

“Quit putting words in my mouth, wench!” he bellowed.

“Then quit making it easy for me to do it!”

“Damn it!”

“What?”

“Mates don’t fucking _yell_ at each other!”

“You started it, baka!”

“But you’re louder _and_ shriller, wench, and you can’t call me a baka, either!”

“Why not?”

For a moment, InuYasha looked like his head was going to explode. Staring at her in complete exasperation, Kagome knew the blast was coming. “Because mates don’t _do_ that!”

“Well, if the shoe fits—”

Rolling his eyes heavenward, InuYasha threw his hands up in the air to ask, “Why did I ever want to bind myself to an impossible woman like you?”

Kagome shot to her feet, towering over the still squatting hanyou, and, balling her fists at her sides, screamed, “Because you love me, _baka!_ ”

“Yeah?” InuYasha snarled as he clamored to his feet, too. “Well, you love me, too, wench!”

“That has to be the most demented way to state your feelings for one another that I think I—or the rest of Musashi—has ever heard.”

InuYasha and Kagome turned to stare at the monk, who had managed to sneak up on them during their yelling match. Sango stepped up beside the monk though she, at least, was trying to hide her amusement.

“Aw, Sango . . . isn’t that sweet? Matching shades of ‘Purifying-the-Jewel’-red.” Turning a speculative gaze on the woman beside him, Miroku blinked a few times before asking, “Say . . . you wouldn’t have a jewel in need of purification, would you, my sweet? All for a good cause, you know.”

‘ _Please, dear heaven, if there are any gods listening, open the earth and swallow me now_ ,’ Kagome pleaded in her head as InuYasha started to growl, advancing slowly on the monk.

“I’ll give you ten seconds to move it, lecher, before I give a whole new meaning to ‘Monk-in-Pain’,” InuYasha snarled.

Miroku tried not to laugh . . . . He failed. Sango rolled her eyes and pushed Miroku toward InuYasha. The hanyou leapt at the monk but missed as Miroku sidestepped him, wisely bent on self-preservation.

“Now, now, InuYasha . . . you can’t kill me before I get married . . . I want to see if it’s really as ‘nothing special’ as you claimed . . . .”

“Fucking dead,” InuYasha snarled, drawing Tetsusaiga.

“InuYasha!” Kagome yelled, stepping between the monk and the hanyou. Miroku’s laughter died out as he stared in wonder at the vibrant blue blade. “Stop it! Miroku’s just joking!”

“You unlocked the power of Tetsusaiga?” Miroku asked quietly, staring from the blade to InuYasha and back again. “How did you figure it out?”

InuYasha snorted as he dropped the sword back into the scabbard and grabbed Kagome before leaping into the higher branches of Goshinboku. “The same way we figured out how to purify the damn jewel,” he hollered down. Kagome groaned, burying her face in InuYasha’s haori as the hanyou had the nerve to snort.

Miroku sighed. “That is so unfair,” he remarked with a slow shake of his head. “They purify the Shikon no Tama _and_ strengthen Tetsusaiga, all by—”

Sango laughed. “We’ll see you back in the village,” she called over her shoulder as she took Miroku’s hand and dragged him back into the foliage. “Come on, houshi-sama, before you embarrass them both enough that Kagome doesn’t save you.”

Miroku chuckled but let Sango lead him away. “Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of ‘Red Tetsusaiga, doesn’t it?”

“I heard that,” InuYasha snarled.

“Well, that was humiliating,” Kagome muttered with her face still buried in the haori. “I think I’m done showing my face anywhere, ever again.”

InuYasha snorted. “They’d find out sooner or later, anyway,” he explained a little too reasonably.

Kagome sat up and glowered at him. “There are some things that aren’t anyone else’s business, you know.”

He shrugged then sighed. “Kiss me, wench. You owe me.”

She frowned. “I owe you?”

“Keh! I’d say! All that work to save the kit, and for what? To lose yet another fang to that demented bastard of a brother of mine. What the hell is he going to do with this one? He’s starting some sort of sick collection . . . .”

Kagome closed her eyes at the reminder of how close they’d come to losing Shippou and let InuYasha pull her back against him as a shiver ran up her spine.   “I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” she remarked as she reached up to rub his ears, “since your fangs grow back over night.”

“I’m not complaining,” he informed her. “I was pointing out the obvious . . . and you still haven’t kissed me.”

She grinned. “I wouldn’t want to hurt your tender little jaw, InuYasha.”

He heaved another sigh but let her play with his ears. “I didn’t say it hurt,” he pointed out.

She frowned. “What does Norimitsu really want? It doesn’t make any sense. Why does he hate you enough to kill you?”

InuYasha shrugged. “I don’t know. So far as I can tell, he had a grudge against my old man. Maybe that’s the real reason he’s like that. I don’t get it though. Why does he care about Mother’s diary enough to have a fake made? And how did he know I’d come after it?” Staring out over the treetops, InuYasha seemed as though he was a million miles away.

“What are you thinking?” she asked quietly.

He started out of his reverie but shook his head. “Nothing.”

She didn’t like the strange sadness on his face. As though he was remembering something that had hurt him before, InuYasha wouldn’t meet her gaze as he stared down at the forest floor. “You can tell me, you know. You’re not alone anymore.”

He finally looked at her, the vaguest hit of a smile starting to surface on his features. “I know. I just keep feeling like there’s something I’m missing, something Mother’s diary is supposed to tell me that I haven’t gotten to yet.”

Kagome sighed. “We can go back, if you want to finish reading it.”

He shook his head. “I need to know how she died. I remember hearing her, but . . . I never knew what happened. I have to know.”

She nodded and hugged him, kissing his cheek gently. He turned his head, stared into her eyes, the churning gold flowing into itself. He closed his eyes just before his lips touched hers.

In the quiet of the falling evening, InuYasha let her hold him, let her shelter him, and just for once, let her protect him.

 

 

 

 

 


	73. Kagome's Surprise

“Can I come?”

Kagome grabbed InuYasha’s arm as she stopped to wait for the kitsune to catch up with them. “Yeah, just don’t do anything to make Kagome’s mother hate me more.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “Mama doesn’t hate you, InuYasha!”

“Keh.”

“Don’t do anything over there we wouldn’t do,” Miroku piped up cheerfully. Sango rolled her eyes.

Kagome stopped suddenly, staring at her friends with a thoughtful frown. “Why don’t you guys see if you can come with us?”

Miroku and Sango exchanged worried glances. “Do you think it’s safe?” Sango asked.

“We’ve never been able to get through before,” Miroku said dubiously.

“Suit yourself, monk,” InuYasha tossed over his shoulder as he held Shippou over the well and dropped him. The kitsune shrieked as he fell, and InuYasha peeked inside. Satisfied that the kit had made it through the time slip, he turned back to his incredulous mate.

Kagome’s eyes flew open wide, and she gasped as she ran over to the well. “InuYasha!”

“What? He’ll be fine. Stop worrying.”

“I can’t believe you did that! What if he had hurt himself?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Come on. I’ll see if I can take Sango through, first. That way, if she don’t make it, she won’t get hurt at the bottom.”

Sango didn’t look convinced. InuYasha picked her up and hopped into the well. Kagome leaned over the well, watching anxiously as Miroku knelt beside her. Sure enough, the time slip opened up and allowed both InuYasha and Sango through.

“Your turn, Miroku. You coming?” Kagome asked as she shifted so her feet were dangling in the well.

Miroku shook his head slowly. “Do you think this is the best idea? I mean, if we can all go through, then isn’t that a bad omen?”

Kagome sighed. “I wondered about that, too, but I wonder if maybe, since the warp was created by Tetsusaiga, if it has something to do with InuYasha’s feelings for people.”

Miroku nodded in understanding. “So you think that, so long as InuYasha cares for someone then they can utilize the time slip?”

Kagome nodded. “I think so . . . .” She shrugged and grinned impishly. “Only one way to try it out . . . unless you want me to send InuYasha back to carry you through, too?”

Miroku made a face. “I’ll jump, thanks.”

Kagome took his hand. “Ready?”

Miroku looked anything but ready. He drew a deep breath then nodded as Kagome pushed off the ground, dragging Miroku down with her.

He squeezed his eyes closed until Kagome let go of his hand as the warmth of the time slip wrapped around them. Cautiously, he opened one eye and gasped at the sapphire light that illuminated their path. “I can’t believe it,” Miroku muttered.

Kagome grinned.   If he thought this was unbelievable, wait till he saw modern Tokyo . . . .

She clamored up the ladder after Miroku on her side of the well. InuYasha caught her hands and pulled her out of the well, letting his hands linger on hers for a few seconds longer than necessary. She smiled.

Sango stood in the courtyard, staring up at Goshinboku with awe. “I can’t believe it,” she remarked quietly. “Goshinboku looks the same . . . .”

Miroku stepped up beside Sango and shook his head. “I can’t believe it . . . so this is where Kagome lives.”

For some reason, InuYasha uttered a low growl at Miroku’s assessment. Kagome glanced up at the hanyou. He looked almost sad. “InuYasha? Are you okay?”

“Keh.” Picking up Kagome’s bag, InuYasha strode off toward the shrine with Shippou fast on his heels. She sighed. She wasn’t sure what was bothering him now, but he’d tell her when he was ready, wouldn’t he? He didn’t like Miroku’s inference that this was her home, she realized. It wasn’t exactly true anymore. Wherever InuYasha was, was where she belonged.

Watching him disappear into the shrine, Kagome sighed.   She’d have to tell him that later. Maybe he’d be more at ease if he knew what she really thought. Shaking off the worry, Kagome grabbed her friends by the hands and dragged them toward the house. “You’ve got to meet my family,” she insisted.

“Kagome, I would truly love to see this ‘grocery store’ that InuYasha has mentioned before?” Miroku asked, his expression almost child-like.

“Okay,” Kagome agreed as she opened the door and let the others go in first.

“I don’t think I like what you’re implying,” InuYasha was mid-growl when they entered the back door. Glowering at her grandfather, the hanyou looked like he was about to tear into the old man. Kagome gasped and hurried to separate the two. Ever since the Great Tetsusaiga Taping incident, InuYasha hadn’t been overly pleased with Grandpa. Kagome had a feeling that InuYasha was just looking for a reason to light into him . . . . She could only hope that her overzealous grandfather hadn’t said anything too bothersome.

“What’s wrong?” Kagome asked as she tugged InuYasha’s arm, leading him away from her grandfather.

InuYasha glared at the old man but allowed Kagome to pull him back. “Nothing,” he growled, his cheeks reddening, growing darker by the second.

“And _I_ say he is! He has your aura!” Grandpa stated haughtily. “There’s no mistaking it! That child is yours!” An odd expression passed over her grandfather’s face as he stared from Shippou to InuYasha and on to Kagome, almost as though he was figuring something out. Face reddening in his righteous indignation, Grandpa gasped and wagged a finger in Kagome’s direction. “Young lady! You have some explaining to do!”

Kagome backed up a step with a puzzled expression. “What? Grandpa?”

Straightening his back proudly, Grandpa shook his head. “You promised your mother, Kagome!”

“ _What?_ ”

InuYasha reflexively pushed Kagome behind his back and rested his hand on Tetsusaiga’s hilt. “Now I _know_ I don’t like what you’re implying, old man . . . . Don’t you think you would have noticed if Kagome had been carrying a pup at any time? And just how old do you think he is?”

“Huh?” Kagome gasped. “A . . . what?”

Grandpa pointed at Shippou, who darted over to cower behind InuYasha and Kagome. “That child is yours!”

“He’s Shippou! Remember Shippou? I’ve told you about him! His parents were killed, and we take care of him,” Kagome hurried to explain as she fought down a flush of her own. She didn’t dare glance over at Sango or Miroku. Knowing the monk, he was fighting hard not to laugh. “So I guess you could say he’s ours . . . maybe that’s what you sense, Grandpa.”

Grandpa shook his head slowly. “No, that’s not it . . .” he said with a sigh, though her explanation did remove the hostility from his tone. He cast Sango and Miroku a suspicious stare. “And who are they? They can’t be yours . . . .”

Kagome rolled her eyes as InuYasha, satisfied that he was no longer under scrutiny, slouched back with his arms crossed in the folds of his haori sleeves. “Grandpa, this is Sango and Miroku.”

Grandpa’s eyes lit with recognition as he suddenly took on a friendly air. “Ah, Miroku! Another holy man, like me!”

Miroku bowed to Grandpa but shook his head slightly. “I apologize. Kagome hasn’t told you that I’ve changed professions? I’m now a youkai exterminator, not a monk.”

Grandpa looked like he was going to cry . . . or launch into one of his ‘young people these days’ speeches. In Kagome’s opinion, neither option was good. “Where’s Mama?” she asked to stave off whatever tirade Grandpa had brewing in his head.

“Your mother is out at the moment.”

She sighed. “I’m going to go change. Then I suppose we’ll go to the grocery store.” She shot a quick look at InuYasha, who was still glaring at Grandpa even if he didn’t look like he was going to try to take the old man’s head off . . . . “InuYasha? Can you keep everyone out of trouble until I get done?”

He nodded once as she turned to leave, a little grin breaking over her features. ‘ _Since when do I ask him to be the voice of reason?_ ’ she thought with a giggle as she hit the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Down the hallway and rounding the corner into her bedroom, Kagome flicked on the light switch and stopped dead in her tracks. Her scream had to have been heard downstairs because seconds later, everyone was trying to crowd into the room to see what was wrong. InuYasha figured it out first. “Oi, wench. Where’s all your junk?”

Shaking her head in silent confusion, Kagome couldn’t even manage a whisper. Everything—bed, dresser, clothes— _everything_ was gone.

“Bedrooms don’t look very different nowadays,” Miroku commented, drawing a scowl from everyone except the shocked miko.

“Grandpa!” Kagome shouted, finally finding her voice as she pushed past her friends and back down the hallway again. “Grandpa! Where are my clothes? And my bed?”

Grandpa pulled a stubborn expression and folded his arms together, much like InuYasha normally did. “You’ll have to wait until your mother gets back.”

Kagome growled and stomped back upstairs, heading for Souta’s room this time. Her brother was probably at soccer practice. His room was just as he’d left it. Apparently Kagome was the only one whose things were mysteriously disappearing . . . . Digging around in her brother’s dresser, Kagome snatched out a pair of heather gray sweat shorts. Souta had grown a lot over the last three years. luckily these had a drawstring since he was much more muscular than she was. Last time she’d checked, he was nearly as tall as she was, too . . . .

After dragging out one of InuYasha’s tee shirts, she huffed out of Souta’s room. Ignoring the questions that she heard being directed at InuYasha, who probably couldn’t really answer any of them to anyone’s satisfaction, Kagome headed for the bathroom. Hopefully by the time she was finished, her mother would be home—and she’d find out what happened to her things.

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“I can’t believe it,” Kagome murmured as she stared around the small ‘house’ that her family had renovated for her late birthday present. The row of store buildings had been turned into a tiny house, of sorts, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms with a cute little living room connecting it all. “Mama? This is fantastic!” she remarked as she hugged her mother. “Thank you so much!”

“We had thought that this would be just for you, but since you and InuYasha . . . . It just seemed a bit more appropriate than for you to continue to live in the shrine house. But I suppose that since you can go back again, you won’t be here as often, anyway.”

“We hadn’t really talked about it,” Kagome hedged. “We had some trouble, and . . . but . . . there is someone you haven’t really gotten to meet yet.” She turned and waved for Shippou to come over. He did, staring at Mrs. Higurashi with his wide green eyes. “Mama, this is Shippou.”

Mrs. Higurashi’s expression brightened as she knelt down before the kitsune. “I’ve heard so many things about you! You’re just as cute as Kagome said you where.”

“Are you like my grandmother?” Shippou asked.

“No wonder the old man thought he was ours,” InuYasha muttered under his breath. “Little runt . . . .”

“You can call me that, if you’d like. Why don’t you come with me for awhile? Kagome’s brother will be home shortly, and I’ll bet he’ll like you.” Shippou nodded and broke into a grin as Mrs. Higurashi stood up again. “How long will you be staying?”

InuYasha glanced at Kagome. Surprised by his acceptance of whatever time frame she set, she smiled as a light blush rose to her cheeks. “How long, InuYasha?”

He shrugged. “Dunno . . . I had a few more questions to ask Sesshoumaru, anyway . . . if I can stand to be in the same room as him without wanting to shove Tetsusaiga—”

“A week,” Kagome cut in before he could give voice to the visual that he’d already offered.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled, pleased that her daughter was so enthusiastic. “I’ll leave you alone now . . . will you all be joining us in the shrine for dinner, or would you rather test out your new kitchen? I’ve made oden . . . .”

Kagome’s eyes widened. “Oden?”

Mrs. Higurashi chuckled as she backed out of the small dwelling. Miroku managed to turn on the television. He jerked back as the box came to life then leaned forward as he hesitantly reached out to touch the screen. “Remarkable!” he murmured. Sango watched over his shoulder.

Kagome grinned before heading back to her bedroom to change out of Souta’s shorts and into her own clothing.

Selecting a pink skirt and lighter pink blouse, Kagome closed the door and stripped off the foreign clothing. Pulling the blouse over her head, she sighed as a sudden sense of well-being ebbed through her.

“Kagome, I—”

Stopping dead in his tracks, InuYasha stared as he entered the room. Leaning back against the closing door, he gaped as she scrambled for the skirt, painfully aware that the blouse wasn’t closed all the way, and that he was staring at her as though he wanted nothing more than to leap on her, which brought on a new round of blushes.

“Was there something you needed?” she asked quietly as she pulled the skirt up over her hips.

He made a strange croaking noise as he pushed away from the door. In a blur of movement, he caught her as she gasped, dragging her impossibly close with one arm while the other hand gently cradled her cheek. He didn’t give her a second to come up with excuses as his mouth fell on hers, hungry, hot, commanding her body as he knees collapsed. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close but not close enough. The open blouse left her skin exposed, and his haori chafed her. The delicate satin of her bra didn’t provide any sort of barrier against it. The coarse fabric rubbed against her anyway, and he growled when she moaned.

“S-Sango,” she murmured as he dragged his lips away only to forge a trail to her neck. “Miroku . . . .”

“Can purify his own fucking jewel,” InuYasha snarled low. “Now be quiet, will you? I’d rather not be thinking about that pervert just now.”

She smiled vaguely then gasped as he nipped at her flesh. “But—”

Bringing her up flush against his body cut off her protests. The feel of him even through his clothes was enough to send the rest of her coherent thought skittering away. “I told you . . .” he whispered between kisses, “you can’t argue with your mate.”

“I . . . can’t . . .” she agreed readily enough as he lowered her on the bed. His fangs were a formidable adversary, raking against her flesh, grazing her skin in a wild yet controlled way. As if he could tell what he was doing to her body, he slowed his movements, flicking his tongue against the skin that he’d already accosted. Moments spilled over in time, locked in a place where nothing really mattered but the touch of his hands, the ragged breathing, the feel of his body against hers.

The ache that grew inside her surged and demanded, manifested itself in a rise of the flesh, of her body arching to meet his. She wasn’t sure if it had been worse, the first time when she hadn’t realized what the feelings meant or now, since she knew, and she knew that he could soothe that ache, that burning, that intensity that coiled around her like a balloon ready to burst. Stubbornly trying to force more air into it, the fire that he kindled would engulf her very being if he didn’t do something soon . . . .

As though he understood, as though he knew, he brought his lips up to hers again, gentle, teasing, altogether comforting, easing her back to earth as he tamed her with his touch on her cheeks, smoothing back her hair. She knew it was as much for himself that he did it as it was for her. Still the warmth of his actions stung her eyes with unshed tears, as she reveled in the gentleness that he reserved just for her. He called to mind every beautiful thing, every magnificent sight, every living moment that she could remember. The sun rose in his touch, set in his heartbeat, surrounded her with the powerful knowledge that she was loved, that she was protected. Those who had mocked him, ridiculed him, cast him out . . . none of them mattered. His heart was beautiful, his heart was hers, just as hers was his, forever.

A female’s cry of outrage followed by hearty male laughter cut through the idyll. InuYasha dropped his forehead against her shoulder with a muffled groan. Kagome knew the feeling. With a wry grin, she pushed InuYasha’s shoulders until he rolled to the side. “I think I’ll kill him now,” InuYasha growled as he sat up, too.

Kagome hurriedly buttoned up her blouse and tucked it into her skirt. “What were they doing when you came in here?”

InuYasha snorted as he stomped toward the door. “Watching that box-thingy.” He frowned and waved his hand, as though trying to grasp something that he couldn’t quite reach. “Bay—watch?”

Kagome’s hands rose to cover her mouth as her eyes widened. “No . . . .”

“I didn’t get a good look at it,” InuYasha went on as he tugged open the door. “Why?”

Kagome suddenly giggled. “Go see if it’s still on,” she remarked with a giggle as she hopped off the bed to follow. ‘ _Baywatch, huh . . . no wonder Miroku’s in trouble . . ._ .’

“What the hell—!”

Sango sat on a cushion with a scowl on her blushing face as Miroku held onto InuYasha’s arm, forcing the hanyou to watch the television, too. InuYasha snarled at the monk, bearing his fangs in a grimace as Miroku pointed at the women on the show. “How can that many different women make the same swimming suit look so different?” Miroku asked in awe.

InuYasha’s cheeks pinked. “I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn, lecher! Get your hands off me.”

Saved by a commercial, or so she thought, Kagome reached down and grabbed Sango’s hand to pull her friend to her feet. Now that they were watching an uninteresting ramen commercial—debatable since InuYasha happened to love the stuff—Miroku turned his attention on the two of them, instead. “You two were gone awhile . . . find another Shikon no Tama that needed purifying?”

“Why, you . . . !” InuYasha snarled as he grabbed for the monk. Miroku dodged. Kagome tried not to blush as she dragged Sango back toward her bedroom.

“If it makes you feel any better, the only reason that show’s still on is because of the women,” Kagome remarked when Sango remained quiet.

Sango sighed. “It wasn’t that . . . .”

Kagome blinked in surprise as she shifted hangers in her closet. “What was it, then?”

Sango sighed again. “It was the men . . . Kagome . . . Are they supposed to look like that?”

Turning away from the closet, Kagome stared thoughtfully at her friend. “Like what, exactly?”

She made a face. “Well, one of them was all . . . hairy and strange-looking, and . . . . Oh, Kagome, I don’t know . . . .”

Kagome giggled. “They come in all shapes and sizes, Sango . . . was Miroku teasing you?”

The exterminator nodded, her cheeks reddening as her gaze fell away. “I was . . . staring . . . a _little_ . . . .” Her expression clouded over. “But he was staring a _lot_.”

Kagome managed to hide her amusement at that. Figuring that she ought to change the subject, she turned to shuffle through her clothes again, looking for something that Sango would wear. Dragging out a short sleeved shapeless dress that would easily reach Sango’s knees, Kagome turned to show it. “Put this on. After dinner, I’ll take you guys on a tour of Tokyo.”

Sango eyed the dress dubiously. Not nearly as short as most of Kagome’s skirts, she hesitated then nodded.

Kagome grinned as she dug through one of her drawers for her hair accessories. ‘ _I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to play dress up with your sister_ ,’ she thought with a small grin. ‘ _This is just as good . . ._.’

“Now,” Kagome commented as she pulled an engraved gold barrette from the pile, “let’s give Miroku something worth looking at . . . .”

Sango slowly nodded.

 

 

 

 

 


	74. On the Town

“You sure this was a good idea, Kagome?” InuYasha mumbled in her ear as they walked down the sidewalk.

Kagome giggled. “Sure . . . worst case, they’ll look like tourists, is all.”

“Tourists?” InuYasha echoed.

“Yeah . . . like foreigners.” When he continued to look duly befuddled, Kagome grinned. “Like they’re from another country.”

That seemed to make more sense. Kagome’s smile widened as InuYasha leaned over to tug on the legs of his jeans. “I thought you said those fit fine.”

He made a face. “Sure they do, when I’m human.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean, when you’re human?”

He shot her a dark look. “It means that _everything_ gets a little smaller when I’m human,” he growled in her ear. “Graphic enough for you?”

An immediate and intense flush washed over her skin as she gasped and peeked over her shoulder to make sure neither Sango nor Miroku had heard that last bit. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Keh.” InuYasha suddenly stopped and turned around to roll his eyes as he shook his head. Stomping back to Miroku, who was reading a poster for one of the strip joints, Kagome had to shake her head, too.

Sango didn’t look impressed as Miroku was dragged back despite his protests. “I simply wished to verify that none of those women could compare to my darling Sango,” Miroku assured them, either missing or choosing to ignore the ‘look’ he was getting from ‘his darling Sango’.

Kagome rolled her eyes and grabbed Sango’s arm, leaving InuYasha to deal with the wandering monk. “He’s like a kid in a candy store,” Kagome remarked with a grimace.

“A candy store?”

Kagome grinned. It didn’t matter how old she was, she’d always be drawn to candy stores . . . . Up ahead was her favorite. Looking at Sango’s sad expression, she had a feeling that her friend could use something to cheer her up, too. “Come on, Sango. You have a date with some chocolate.”

“What do you mean?”

Kagome squeezed Sango’s shoulders. “It means that whenever a guy makes you upset or angry, girls eat chocolate, and everything is magically better. Trust me.”

Sango shifted her gaze back to the errant monk who was still trying to return to the poster as InuYasha pushed him forward. Wearing a pair of InuYasha’s jeans and a purple silk shirt, Kagome had to admit that he didn’t look at all as though he had just come from Sengoku Jidai. Sango looked so sad, so miserable . . . .

Kagome sighed. It had taken nearly ten minutes to convince the exterminator to come out of her bedroom. Miroku—intently staring at the television—hadn’t commented until they had to drag him out of the house and down the street. But she looked so lovely in the flirty little blue dress that Kagome had been sure Miroku would have been falling all over himself. At the moment, however, it looked like it may have been wishful thinking on her part.

A couple of young men walking toward them took a moment to appraise Sango so openly that Sango blushed and tugged at the high scooped neckline of the dress. “Hi,” one greeted. “You’re Higurashi Kagome, right?”

Kagome nodded slowly. “Do I know you?”

The young man laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m Kenichi, and this is Ryu . . . my little brother is friends with your brother, Souta. He talks about you often. Sort of weird, really. Most siblings can’t stand one another.”

“You can say that again,” InuYasha mumbled.

“What’s your friend’s name?” Kenichi asked, nodding at Sango since his friend, Ryu, had apparently lost his ability to speak. He was staring at Sango in something akin to absolute wonder, Kagome nearly laughed out loud.

‘ _Are you seeing this, Miroku? You’d better be . . . ._ ’ Kagome thought as she smiled. “This is Sango.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Kenichi remarked with a bright grin. “We were on our way to go dancing. Why don’t you two come with us?”

“I don’t fucking think so,” InuYasha snarled as he grabbed Kagome’s hand and pulled her back against his chest. “I suggest you get the hell outta here before I decide to introduce you to a close friend of mine.”

“Uh, this is my, err, _boyfriend_ , InuYasha . . . .”

“ _Boyfriend?_ ” InuYasha snarled. “Try _mate_ , wench.”

The boys exchanged odd looks at InuYasha’s use of the word ‘mate’. Ryu turned back toward Sango. Miroku chuckled behind her. “Beautiful, isn’t she? Too bad she’s _my_ mate.”

“Not _yet_ , I’m not,” Sango bit out as Miroku, imitating InuYasha’s protective stance behind Kagome, wrapped his arm around her waist, too.

“Sorry for the misunderstanding,” Kenichi said with a short bow. “Have a nice evening.”

The four watched as the young men continued down the sidewalk. Sango pushed Miroku away with a frown. “So now you remember I’m alive?”

“Now, Sango, light of my life, I knew you were alive long before now.”

“Keh,” InuYasha snorted. “Claiming only works with youkai. _Nothing_ works with lechers.”

Kagome rolled her eyes and grabbed Sango’s arm as the two men started in on another of their insult-fests. “They’ll catch up,” Kagome muttered, “and if they don’t, I’m sure InuYasha can sniff us out.”

“Men of your time are quite forward, Kagome.”

Kagome sighed. “Unfortunately, Miroku would fit in only too well around here.”

Sango finally managed a weak smile. “Your home is so overwhelming, Kagome . . . how do you remember where everything is?”

“You don’t. You just memorize where your favorite places are,” she admitted with a wry grin. “Anyway, let’s go get some candy.

The small store sandwiched between two high rise office buildings was one of the coziest places Kagome knew. Her father used to walk her here almost every evening to let her spend her daily allowance on candies. It normally amounted to five pieces, but somehow that was always enough: one for her, one for Grandpa, one for Souta after he was big enough for it, one for Mama, and Papa . . . well, he never did take any, so she always had two pieces for herself.

“Higurashi!”

Kagome’s head wasn’t the only one that turned at the called-out greeting. All four friends turned to look as the girl in question smiled just a little at the young man. “Houjou! Hi! Nice to see you. How is school?”

Houjou glanced at the others, who had stepped up behind Kagome almost protectively. “It’s going well. Eri and Yuka talk about you all the time. Too bad Ayumi chose to go to the other school, and you with internet schooling . . . how’s your health? Did the doctors ever figure out what the mysterious fungus was?”

Kagome winced. “Oh, that!” ‘ _Darn it, Grandpa! That sounds so disgusting . . . !_ ’ “That was nothing, after all . . . .”

“Who are your friends?” Houjou asked, eyeing InuYasha and Miroku almost nervously. Considering InuYasha was cracking his knuckles rather menacingly, Houjou’s reticence was completely understandable . . . .

Kagome grabbed InuYasha’s hand as much to stop him from his intimidation tactics as it was to prove to InuYasha that she wasn’t embarrassed about being with him. “You know InuYasha, right? He was with me at the school festival?”

“Oh, yeah,” Houjou nodded. “Didn’t recognize you without the dog ear disguise. Those were really nice effects, with your sword . . . .”

InuYasha growled slightly. “Effects? That was a Kaze no Kizu, you little—”

Kagome elbowed him in the ribs. He shot her a warning look that she promptly ignored. “And this is Miroku and Sango. They’re from the country.”

“The country? Wow, bet you’re not used to Tokyo then?”

“He don’t know the half of it,” InuYasha muttered in Kagome’s ear.

Kagome nodded in agreement. “It nice seeing you again, Houjou. Tell the girls I said hello the next time you see them?”

Houjou bowed slightly. “Of course. It was nice meeting you all. Enjoy Tokyo.”

“I don’t think I like that little Houjou-thing,” InuYasha remarked tightly as Houjou walked away.

“He’s not a thing, he’s a very nice guy!” Kagome complained quietly. “Now behave, will you?”

Sango frowned as she watched the young man leave. “Kagome, was that the boy you told me about before?”

“Did I?” Kagome asked nervously.

“Ah, yes,” Miroku cut in, rubbing his chin as he tried to remember. “Your ‘date’, right?”

InuYasha started growling again.

“Seemed like a nice young man,” Sango added.

Kagome stifled a groan as InuYasha’s growl escalated.

“Did you ever purify anything with him?” Miroku asked.

“Houshi-sama!” Sango gasped, dragging Miroku away from InuYasha before the hanyou decided that the monk would make a decent object to sharpen his claws.

Miroku held his hands up as he tried not to laugh. InuYasha advanced on the monk until Miroku backed into a shelf of glass candy jars. The jars rattled but luckily nothing fell. Kagome grimaced as she peeked around to make sure no one was hearing the scuffle. “InuYasha! You can’t do that here! They’ll throw you in jail! Now stop! Miroku was just teasing!” she hissed.

InuYasha suddenly stepped back, casting Kagome a speculative glance. “Tell me more about this ‘jail’, Kagome.”

She narrowed her gaze on him. “Why?”

He shrugged. “So I know whether or not it might be worth it to clobber the monk, anyway.”

Kagome shook her head. “Of course you don’t want to do that,” she remarked as she grabbed a clear plastic cellophane bag and dropped a few pieces of candy into it.

“That’s debatable,” InuYasha retorted with a snort. “Get some for Shippou.”

Kagome stopped and stared over her shoulder at him. ‘ _Since when does he remind me to get stuff for Shippou?_ ’ She shrugged. ‘ _Well, he has been much nicer to him since . . . come to think of it, he’s been much nicer to Shippou since the purification incident_ . . . .’

The torn look on InuYasha’s face as he asked Sesshoumaru to save Shippou came back to her. ‘ _You want me to beg? I’ll beg. I’ll_ plead _. Just save him_.’

InuYasha grabbed a couple of bright red gumballs and dropped them into the bag followed by a handful of various other candies that apparently looked good to the hanyou. Miroku dropped a few more candies into the bag, and Sango added a few, as well. Kagome held up the bag. “Good enough? You don’t think this will make Shippou sick, do you? It’s an awful lot of candy for such a small kit.”

“Uncle! Aunt Kagome! How fortuitous to meet you in here!”

InuYasha’s spine stiffened at the sound of that voice. Sango stared in wide-eyed amazement at the obvious relative, and Miroku grinned as though he was highly amused. “Nibori! Good evening,” Kagome greeted with a bright smile.

“Will you fucking stop with the ‘uncle’ crap?” InuYasha snarled.

Nibori bowed slightly. “Pardon, Uncle. As you know—”

“Yeah, I got it. Your bastard father insists. Whatever.”

“Who are your friends?”

“These are Sango and Miroku,” Kagome explained.

Nibori’s expression registered his surprise as he nodded. “I see . . . so I take it the well functions as it should? Where’s your so—Shippou?”

“We left him with my family. He was playing PlayStation with my brother.”

“He’s a very precocious child,” Nibori agreed with an easy grin. Kagome blinked in surprise. He looked so much like Sesshoumaru that it was uncanny yet he didn’t act at all like his father. Handing Kagome a brown paper bag, Nibori winked. “Give this to him, with my highest regards.”

Kagome peeked into the bag and gasped. “He’ll have a stomach ache for a year,” she predicted, staring at the numerous boxes of pocky in the bag, “and he’ll adore you . . . if he doesn’t get sick on it.”

Nibori chuckled and shifted his gaze to Sango and Miroku. “You have not yet been wed?”

Miroku frowned. “How can you tell?”

Nibori grinned. “Humans mark one another as well. Normally, though, you simply don’t realize it.”

Miroku blushed slightly. InuYasha didn’t miss it. “Keh.”

“When will you be wed?” Nibori went on, either ignoring the discomfort drawn by his assessment or just trying not to add more on top of it.

“Fourteen days,” Miroku said with a long-suffering sigh. “Fourteen days too long.” Sango blushed but smiled.

“You’ll have to come back before then. A bachelor party is something that is required before marriage.”

Miroku frowned as Kagome shook her head at the youkai. “What is a bachelor party?”

Nibori chuckled again. “A bachelor party is simply a gathering of the groom and his friends. They go out, have fun, cause a little trouble . . . right up Uncle’s alley, so to speak.”

InuYasha didn’t respond to that other than a shifting of his gaze.

Kagome groaned as Miroku nodded slowly. “I think this bachelor party tradition should be upheld.”

Nibori grinned. “And I’m certain that Mother would be more than happy to host a bachelorette party for you, Sango.”

“I don’t know . . .” Kagome began slowly. The idea of InuYasha and Miroku and a bachelor party didn’t sit well with her . . . .

“Oh, come now, Aunt Kagome . . . what’s the worst that could happen?”

And that question was more than enough to make her groan.

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome opened the door to the newsstand and stepped inside as the others straggled in after her. The scent of exotic tobaccos and incense assailed her nose. The smells were comforting to her, reminding her of times long past, of stopping in to get the newspaper with her father, and, if she were lucky, a picture book, and later, a ‘word’ book.

InuYasha sneezed, and Kagome glanced back at him, grimacing as she realized that his poor nose was probably suffering for the tangy smells. “Are you okay?” she asked, laying a hand on his arm.

“Keh. I’m fine.”

She winced as he sneezed again. “I’ll hurry.”

Having agreed to pick up a paper for her mother, Kagome hurried over to the assortment of dailies. _The Tokyo Times_ was still arranged where it was every day. She grabbed one and turned around, ready to pay for the paper. Her friends were eyeing the magazines, too.

Sango was looking at a home and garden magazine. Miroku was glancing through a news magazine. InuYasha stood nearby with his arms crossed over his chest, a bored expression on his face. He sneezed again.

“Let me pay for this, and we can go,” she told InuYasha. He nodded once and waited.

Miroku put the publication up and stared at the rows of magazines. At the top of the shelves he frowned as he stared at a row of magazines. The extended shelf that held them was marked ‘adult’.

Kagome waited in line to pay for her newspaper. After she handed the cashier her money, she stuck the paper in one of the bags and turned back toward her friends.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” InuYasha grouched, turning his face away from whatever it was Miroku was trying to show him.

Kagome groaned, having a pretty good suspicion what it was.

“Just look, InuYasha! Can they really do that?”

InuYasha’s face deepened in color as he shoved the magazine away. “Keh! Pervert.”

“What are you looking at?” Sango asked as she dropped her magazine back on the shelf.

Miroku quickly closed it and stuck it back on the shelf. “Nothing . . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “You were looking at a perverted magazine,” InuYasha countered in a low snarl.

Sango blushed, staring from InuYasha to Miroku, who was doing his best to avoid Sango’s gaze. “A what?”

“Miroku . . .” Kagome began with a shake of her head. “I can’t believe you!”

“I wasn’t _looking_ for it,” he protested.

“Keh! It just happened to leap into your hentai hand?” InuYasha scoffed. “Pervert.”

“Well, I didn’t say that . . . .”

Sango glared at the ex-monk with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Kagome dropped her arm over the exterminator’s shoulder. “Come on, Sango . . . .”

Sango shook her head and followed Kagome.

Miroku watched the retreating females with a heavy sigh. Leaning on InuYasha’s shoulder, the monk groaned. “Why did Kagome put Sango in that?” he complained.

InuYasha shifted his gaze to the side. “In what?”

“That dress,” Miroku remarked. “Doesn’t Kagome know that I already have a hard enough time keeping away from Sango without that added bit of incentive?”

“Oh? Is that why you’ve been acting like a jackass?”

Miroku shook his head as he headed for the doors. “I’m so misunderstood,” he complained.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “How can you misunderstand a fucking lecher?”

“I heard that, InuYasha . . .” Miroku pointed out.

“I meant for you to.”

 

 

 ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“You look beautiful.”

Sango stopped and swallowed hard. Walking through the park on their way back to the shrine had been Kagome’s idea. She said that normally she avoided it at night, but since InuYasha and Miroku were there, she didn’t figure there was any real danger. Sango didn’t quite understand what sort of danger Kagome meant. Still, she had to admit that it was much quieter, and a welcome change from the constant sounds of the city.

“I didn’t think you’d noticed,” Sango remarked quietly, careful to keep her tone neutral and her eyes on the path below their feet.

Miroku sighed. “Sango . . . .” He caught her arm and held on. “Do you have any idea how difficult the last few months have been?”

She shook her head, still unable to meet his gaze. Somewhere up ahead, she could hear InuYasha and Kagome quietly talking as they distanced themselves. She wasn’t worried. Kagome had mentioned that this path came out next to the shrine. In answer to Miroku’s question, she shook her head.

“Sango . . . every time I see you I want to reach for you, to hold you . . . to kiss you . . . then add to that the dress you’re wearing, and . . . .” He broke off with a sigh. “I’m just a man, Sango . . . but you make it very difficult to remember how much I want to do the right thing.”

“I do?”

With another sigh, Miroku pulled her into his arms. “Yes, Sango, you do.”

She smiled. It felt like her first real smile of the evening. “I thought maybe you didn’t like how I looked in this,” she admitted.

“Never believe that, Sango.” He squeezed her gently then sighed again. “Two weeks . . . I’m going to die by then . . . .”

She pulled away and took his hand before leaning up to kiss his cheek. “You won’t die. You’re strong. You’re a youkai exterminator, remember?”

Miroku shrugged as he fell into step beside her. “Youkai exterminator . . . monk . . . it doesn’t make me stop feeling the way I do . . . but I know you’re worth the wait.”

She stopped, gazing at him as she blinked back sudden moisture in her eyes. “Houshi-sama . . . .”

Slowly, carefully, he reached up, wiping away the single tear that had slipped from the corner of her eye with the pad of his thumb. “And for whatever it’s worth? You’re far more beautiful than any of those other women.”

“Am I?” she asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

Miroku grinned and started walking again. “Certainly. I was just making sure that I really do have the most beautiful woman in the world.”

She giggled and shook her head. “Flattery will get you nowhere, monk.”

“Perhaps not, but your love will.”

Sango rolled her eyes but smiled. “Come on, houshi-sama, before InuYasha and Kagome start thinking we got lost.”

Miroku made a face. “Can’t have that, can we?”

 

 

 

 

 


	75. Healing

InuYasha sank down in the hot spring with a small groan and a disgusted wince. Having managed to sneak away alone, he had to admit that his own pride was really making him suffer. ‘ _And if Kagome never realizes how hard her training is on me, I’ll be glad_ ,’ he thought with a grimace as a muscle in his lower back screamed at him.

In the course of three days, he’d been purified twice, sent flying by a decent blast of her miko’s energy once, endured numerous ‘close calls’ with Kagome’s blunt-ended arrows that weren’t sharp enough to pierce the skin but still smarted, anyway, all in an effort to train against a ‘moving target’. ‘ _That fucking monk . . . This is all his fault . . . ._ ’

InuYasha’s expression darkened. Miroku derived way too much enjoyment out of watching InuYasha get his ass handed to him every day. It was bad enough that InuYasha didn’t dare retaliate at all out of fear of hurting Kagome, but lately Miroku had taken to watching—and laughing whenever Kagome managed a lucky shot. _‘Miroku . . . I’ll get him, I swear, even if it’s the last thing I do_ . . . .’

And the worst of it was that Kagome’s training normally left her so exhausted he’d be lucky to get a chaste kiss from her at night. InuYasha’s ears drooped. He just couldn’t win. He’d tried.

Then there were his other concerns, too. Kagome had figured out that the last two pages of his mother’s diary were missing. Ripped out. History. Gods only knew where they were or what was written on them. It was plain to him that Norimitsu obviously didn’t want InuYasha figuring out what was on those pages, but why? His only choice, if he really wanted to find out, was to hunt down Norimitsu and recover the original diary—if the pages were still in that one.

Even worse, every day meant that Norimitsu was getting stronger, too. InuYasha growled. ‘ _Damn him! He tried to kidnap Kagome . . . . He killed Shippou . . . and now that deranged bastard of a brother of mine is running around with my fang that he wanted as payment. Why the fuck did he want another one of my fangs?_ ’ A slow, smug grin surfaced as InuYasha’s eyes glowed a lighter, mellower gold. ‘ _Then again, I_ did _surpass the old man in strength, didn’t I? Keh! Worthless half-breed, am I? That baka is probably trying to have an even stronger sword forged or something . . . . Totosai better not do it . . . ._ ’

He sighed, letting his head fall back against the rocks behind him. Hidden from view, he’d been coming here a lot lately in his attempts to find some sort of relief from his stiff muscles and overall soreness induced by Kagome’s training sessions.

When he first scented her, he thought his nose was failing. Kagome was being dragged away to learn about creating barriers when he’d sneaked away. He sat up straighter and sniffed again. ‘ _It is her. . . Kagome?_ ’

“So is this where you slink off to after training?” Kagome asked as she sat down on a boulder nearby.

“Slink off? Keh! I was just relaxing . . . .”

She giggled, drawing her legs up, wrapping her arms around them. Positioned as she was, InuYasha couldn’t see anything despite her short skirt. He didn’t have to. His nose worked well enough, damn it . . . .

“Relaxing? Since when do you relax?”

“Keh! You saying I don’t deserve it, after letting you use me as target practice?”

She made a face, her smile vanishing. “I hate doing it . . . .”

“I know. Don’t worry about it. You can’t hurt me, remember?”

She didn’t look convinced. “At least I didn’t purify you today,” she said with a wince. “I’m sorry . . . .”

“If you really _were_ sorry, you’d get in here and show me.”

Kagome gasped as InuYasha’s chin snapped up. ‘ _Damn it! Did I say that out loud?_ ’ Daring a peek at his mate, he’d say he did. Stifling a whine as her scent changed and hit him square on, InuYasha had to reign in the impulse to drag her off that rock and into the water as an embarrassed flush siphoned over his cheeks.

He half expected Kagome to get up and run away. He didn’t even dare to hope for what the other half of him wanted. Kagome slowly stood and looked around, as though she was trying to make certain they were alone. He snorted. She could have asked him. He would have told her . . . . ‘ _Then again, maybe not_ ,’ he thought through his lust-clouded mind as Kagome unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall to the ground with a subtle shrug of her slender shoulders followed in short order by her skirt. The pink satin bra did little to cover her breasts, and he didn’t even dare look down further.

Sliding off the rock, Kagome slowly walked toward him. The tiny scrap of cotton and lace that created her panties did little to hide the graceful movements of her hips as she came to him. Her body was flushed, radiating energy, radiating heat. Hair shining in the afternoon sunshine, the dappling of leaves that filtered the light played off her skin in a study of shadow and light. A wanton vision, an unattainable dream, and as she drew nearer, InuYasha couldn’t remember to breathe.

“Take those off,” he rasped out quietly, eyes lit with a centrifugal fire, a melding passion. “I’ll tear them off you if you don’t,” he warned.

She sank down next to him, the water barely covering the gentle swell of her breasts. “You’ve got a bad habit of shredding my clothes.”

“You had your warning, wench,” he growled as he reached for her, dragged her into his arms, onto his lap. Her arms reached around him, circling his neck, and she instantly relaxed against him. Her skin burned him, scalded him as his lips scorched her, branded her forever. She kissed him, nibbling his bottom lip as he growled in response. The water did little to hinder her scent. Ebbing from her core, filtered to him, mingled with the baser scent of the water, culminating in a complete intoxication, InuYasha felt as though the world was spinning out of his control. Kagome was his balance, his constant, and she alone dictated the flow.

She shifted, straddling him as she rose up on her knees, tilting his head back as she kissed him. Her lips broke through his defenses, her tongue took no prisoners. His battle was lost before it ever began as her will became his, and his will reeled in the knowledge that he didn’t ever want to be free of her. She broke her mouth away from his, smoothing back his bangs with gentle fingers, kissing his forehead, caressing his ears as she showered him with butterfly kisses. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she pressed against him. “I know you hate the training . . . .”

At the moment, he couldn’t quite remember what it was he hated. He was having marked difficulty remembering much of anything, to tell the truth . . . . The touch of her mouth was a balm to his soul, a soothing show of the giving in her heart. Kagome was a rare creature, a mystery to him. She loved without reservation, and she gave without expecting anything in return.

“Kagome . . . ?” he asked when she leaned away. A slight sadness in her features, a bitter thing, cut him deep. Lashes spiked with unshed tears . . . why did she cry? Didn’t she know that he couldn’t stand to see her cry? Why did she look like that? “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head slowly, forcing a smile that he could tell was for his benefit. “I love being with you. You’re like a dream come true to me, the answer to the wish I made on that wishing stone . . . I just can’t help but think that it won’t last, not for you . . . I’ll die, and—”

“Stop it.”

“InuYasha—”

“Damn it, Kagome! Why do you have to make this so hard?” Anger rose inside him, festering through him, ugly, daunting, and yet . . . and yet he couldn’t deny what she said, either. With a frustrated sigh, InuYasha slumped back against the rocks, closing his eyes against her words, wishing that she didn’t make sense. “Would you believe me if I said that it’s enough for me?” he asked quietly.

“How can it be?”

He reached for her hand. She took it, almost as though she was frightened to do it. “How can it not be?”

She let her cheek rest against his heart, let him hold her as she silently cried. With every tear that fell from her eyes another part of his soul fell away. ‘ _It’s got to be enough. I knew . . . I knew you were mortal . . . and I . . . I can’t live without you . . ._ .’

“I feel so selfish,” she admitted at last. “I feel like I’m being selfish . . . and I can’t help but be angry because it isn’t fair . . . . The one thing you deserve is to be happy, and I feel like I’m taking that away from you.”

As though someone had wrapped their hand around his heart and was squeezing the very life out of him, InuYasha’s chest constricted, knotted. “Keh! What do you know?” Setting her aside, he shot to his feet and stomped away. The overall effect was diminished since he was waist deep in water. The anger was still evident, though. “Don’t be so stupid, all right?” he growled, unable to look at her when all he wanted to do was shake some sense into her, if he had to.

He heard her stand up, heard her moving around though she didn’t come closer. “I’m not being stupid . . . . You’re the one who’s always saying that I’m just a pathetic human, and it’s true . . . . Don’t you see? InuYasha, I—”

“No, I don’t fucking see! I don’t see a damn thing! All I see is that you’re so set on believing that you’re selfish and you don’t see what I’m trying to tell you!” he bellowed as his temper exploded.

“What are you trying to tell me?” she finally asked.

“That it don’t matter if we’re together for one lifetime or for forever! You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to be with, and it’s enough for me!”

Her arms suddenly encircled him, her small body pressed tightly against his back. That one action melted his anger, thwarted his rising irritation. As though her spirit had the ability to temper him, he stared at her small hands, clasped together around his waist as her tears dripped down his back like dispersing droplets of dew.

He turned and gently lifted her chin, wiping her tears away as he stared into her eyes. Shining like glass, like the dust from the Shikon no Tama, she tried not to cry. Nostrils trembling, lips quivering, Kagome dragged in a ragged breath as her hands reached up to hold onto his wrists. Nose and eyes dusted with a rosy flush from her tears, cheeks pale in the warm glow reflected off the water, lips blood red from their kisses, he stared at her, transfixed by the girl—the woman—the miko—his mate. “Don’t worry about that, Kagome. We can’t change anything now, and I wouldn’t, anyway.”

She looked like she wanted to argue with him. In the end she nodded. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, gaze skittering to the side. “I’m just tired, I guess, and—”

“Keh. Stop worrying about things we can’t control, okay?”

She nodded and managed a small smile. Tipping her chin up, he dropped his mouth over hers. ‘ _She tastes like honey_ ,’ he thought in a dazed sort of way, tongue exploring, tracing, circling. Something about her never failed to strip away his sense of reason, his logic. As though she defied the very elements, something about Kagome would always remain fresh and pure, as calming to him as the wind after a rainstorm, as wild as the flowing rivers. Swelling against him, invading every recess of his soul, and Kagome had somehow made his heart her home. She sighed as he stroked her, her passion rising as he cut away her bra with a flick of his claw. She accepted what he offered and matched it with a vehemence, a subtle deliberation, a dynamic requisite, a reckless desire.

A complete mystery wrapped in the beautiful silk of skin, she couldn’t hide from him, couldn’t lie to his body. The fragrance of her enveloped him, wrapped around him, cosseted him, and goaded him on. Holding her close wasn’t nearly enough. The feel of her in his arms, against his body was almost enough to bring him to his knees. She wielded a strange power over him, and he reveled in it as her hands brushed over him, touched him, stroked his skin as he devoured her in the crush of his lips on hers.

A barrage of intuition, moving on instinct alone, hands seeking flesh, as the press of craving surged into the desire of both, a culmination of love and passion, of need built on the fires of gentle yearning, spiraling upward, sending sparks into the sky as a gentleness gave way to a more primitive aspiration.

Kagome was powerless to stop his assault on her senses. Every nerve in her body screamed for his touch. Feathery light brushes of claws over skin made her shiver, made her shudder, made her drop her head back as his mouth burned against her. Where their bodies touched felt like a raging fire yet that tightness in her belly was back, demanding release even as he teased her slowly.   Calculated strokes as his roughened palms ran over her back, holding her close as her hair dragged in the ebbing water, Kagome gasped, cried out, felt the pressure of him against her, the demanding part of him that scalded her flesh.

Still he took his time, nipping her neck, raking his fangs over her skin, his heart beat so hard, so fast, she could feel it against her breasts. He made her forget time, space, everything but his mouth, his fangs, his tongue, his hands, his body. As the world fell away, as the only thing that mattered was that he was here, that he was with her, that he didn’t dare stop or she would surely die.

Incoherent pleas, entreaties that were only half-spoken, broken gasps, stifled moans escaped her. InuYasha was relentless, his efforts amassing in a sweet lethargy, a sweltering ache as her body melted. He held her up when her own strength failed her, mouth dropping over her breast as she felt her body come undone. A burst of fever, a throbbing ache, bordering on painful as desire became a conspicuous thing. Rippling through the air, drawing the two closer and closer, Kagome could hear the whispers in the air, the silent consent as heaven and earth collided, and his physical form was InuYasha.

Strained gentleness in subdued touches, trembling fingers trailing up her sides, InuYasha’s breathing was labored, rasping. She could feel the tightening strain in his muscles. They undulated under her fingertips, pitched beneath her hands. He groaned softly as she ran her fingers along the ridges of his back, delighting in the tremors erupting under her perusal, the silken feel of his skin stretched so taut over the sinewy matrix of his strength.   He was a complete contradiction to her. Gentleness wrapped in a gruff demeanor, a tenderness masked behind complete nonchalance. Protective and sheltering yet needing to be cosseted, cherished, she did the only thing she knew to do for him. She offered him everything—all of herself, her world—veiled in a wave of heat, in the rush of longing, in the wash of love, in the touch of her hands, of her body, of her soul.

Body straining against body, a silent entreaty as heat unfurled. Kagome whimpered softly, drawing InuYasha’s mouth back to hers. “InuYasha . . .” she whispered against his lips, “please . . . .”

A slight tug, sound muffled by the water, she felt her panties fall away, victim to his claws. The sudden heat that exploded in her, coupled with the subdued caress of his hand wrung a cry from somewhere deep inside, a harsh sound tempered only by the softest gasp that followed.

Leaning over, sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to the shore only to lay her down on his clothes. She opened her eyes as he kissed her, marveling at the tender expression on his face, the stark contrast of his black lashes against his cheeks. Her eyes closed again as bolts shot out from every point in her body, accumulating in a rampant ache, a central burn. Claws skittering over her skin, down her ribcage, over her stomach added to the swelling tide of wanting. The rise of her hips drew him next, his touch ardent yet cautious, his hands shaking, as though he were afraid that she would shatter under his perusal. His care brought tears to her eyes, and in that moment she knew that time wasn’t what mattered to him. ‘ _I’ll love you forever, InuYasha . . . ._ ’

As if he heard the call of her heart, he groaned softly as Kagome arched up against him with a gasp. Lips against hers, he pressed into her. “Ka . . . gome . . . .”

She looked up at him through half-closed eyes, smiling faintly at the emotion in his gaze. Under the haze of passion that darkened his eyes to the golden brown of early sunset, the love that he showed her was unmasked, unhidden. As clear to her as if he had said the words out loud, he gave her his heart as he gave her his body, and lifting her hips against him, she gave herself to him, too.

But the ache deep within her took over her movements. It registered in her bemused mind that he was trying to be gentle with her. The need that drove her precluded that. His lips claimed hers once more as she arched her back, seeking to tell him what she wanted, and he understood. The stroke of his body against hers goaded her, pushed at her, taunted her with whispered promises, of absolute completion, of the feeling that she was as close to his heart as she could possibly be.

Clinging to him, holding him close, nails digging into his back as he urged her forward, she tore her mouth away as she cried out, the first ebullient waves shocking her as they rocketed through her body. Convulsing, trembling, unable to control the deluge of convergent sensations, Kagome couldn’t hold on any longer, couldn’t touch the swell of ground as her body floated high above only to shatter into the sparkling cloud of dust as InuYasha collapsed against her. Cushioned in the steady ebb, the pounding of his heart and hers combined in one fluid beat and ensconced in a place where no one else existed, where no one would dare intrude . . . .

InuYasha rolled onto his back, dragging Kagome along with him. She rested her cheek on his chest, listening to the strong heartbeat that matched her own. “What are you thinking about?” Kagome whispered, unwilling to raise her voice and break the magic of the moment.

He gave her a gentle squeeze. “Sneaky wenches who sneak up on me when I’m trying to take a bath.”

She leaned up on her elbows to narrow her eyes at him. “Wench- _ez_? As in more than one?”

“Keh! You think you’re the first?” he teased. “Ow! Sneaky wench needs her nails cut.”

Feeling completely sanctified in her pinching, Kagome snuggled against his chest again. He grabbed her hand and proceeded to stick her index finger into his mouth. “What are you doing?”

“Cutting your nails,” he explained without letting go of her hand.

She jerked her hand back. “Not with your teeth, you’re not!” she complained, “and—ah!” InuYasha sat up suddenly, pushing her off and jerking his clothes out from under her. “InuYasha! Why did—?”

Without pausing as he dragged on his pants, InuYasha spared her a worried glance. “Shippou’s in trouble.”

Kagome frowned but reached for her clothes, too, as an odd feeling that InuYasha was right coursed through her. “InuYasha! Wait for me!” she called after him as he snatched up his clothes and Tetsusaiga and set out at a sprint.

He stopped with a snort of disgust as he slipped the sword through his waistband. “Come on, wench! We ain’t got all day!”

Kagome made short work of pulling on her skirt and blouse—lucky for her, it was the pullover variety—before she grabbed her shoes and socks and sprinted over to him. It occurred to her that she was at a distinct disadvantage, since InuYasha had shredded her bra as well as her panties, but Shippou needed them. She could fix that oversight later . . . .

He reached over his shoulder to drag her onto his back and took off. She winced as she stared at the tiny red half-moons dug into his back. “InuYasha? Did I . . . I didn’t . . . did I hurt you?”

“When?” he asked, his tone distracted as he pushed off the ground to sail above the trees.

She flushed, not that he could see it. “When we . . . you know . . . .” Tracing one of the marks, she frowned.

“Keh! Those? They don’t even hurt.”

“You wouldn’t tell me if they _did_ hurt, would you?”

He glanced over his shoulder with a suspicious frown. “Tell me you’re wearing something under that skirt, wench,” he remarked slowly.

She snorted—a sound she rarely made. “I’ll tell you I am, but I’d be lying. You ripped my panties, remember?”

He turned away before she could see his grin but she heard it in his voice, anyway. “Why aren’t you carrying that huge bag of yours?”

“I don’t carry it everywhere,” she mumbled, her cheeks reddening. “Besides that, it’s your own fault, you can’t blame me!”

“I can,” he argued as he veered to the left—toward the stream near the village. “I told you to take off your clothes or I’d tear them off you.”

Kagome made a face. “How can you even say that with a straight face?”

Shippou’s voice interrupted the ‘disagreement’. The kit was near, and InuYasha sped up even faster at the harsh, “Help!”

Bursting through the tree line at the edge of the stream, InuYasha let Kagome off his back as he scanned the area for the endangered kitsune. “What the hell?” InuYasha growled in semi-confusion as bounded off to ‘save’ Shippou. Dangling over the current as he hung precariously from a fallen log suspended about three feet over the water, there wasn’t any real danger other than the possibility of a drenched kitsune.

InuYasha scooped up the kit and deposited him on the shore, glowering down at the child as though he were trying to decide if a good tweaking was in order for the scare.

Shippou tried to dart back to the fallen log. InuYasha caught him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, runt?”

“I dropped him!” Shippou squealed, struggling against InuYasha’s hold. “I was trying to wash him off, and I dropped him! I can’t find him!” Drawing a heavy breath and trying not to cry, Shippou attempted to escape again. InuYasha’s head turned back toward the water.

“Dropped who? Who’s ‘he’?”

“My dog!” Shippou hollered.

“Your what?”

“My dog! The one you gave me!” Shaking his head sadly, Shippou suddenly stopped struggling and sat down hard. “I was trying to wash my blood off him so he smelled like you again, and I dropped him, and now he’s gone . . . .”

“Of all the fucking—”

“InuYasha! Save his dog!” Kagome demanded as she picked Shippou up and cuddled him to her chest.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and looked like he wanted to argue it. In the end, he turned on his heel and, dropping his shirts on the dry ground, he stomped off toward the stream. The kitsune blinked in surprise and watched in obvious awe as the hanyou—hakama and all—stalked into the river and headed downstream, lifting his head and turning from side to side as he tried to track the beloved ‘dog’, and he disappeared around the curve in the river.

Shippou swiveled his head to pin Kagome with a questioning stare. “Kagome? You smell sort of weird.”

“Weird?” she echoed as a flush rose in her cheeks. She had a decent idea why the kit would think as much. Still . . . .

“Yeah . . . you smell . . . I don’t know . . . Your scent is stronger? But you smell a lot more like InuYasha . . . .” Suddenly, his eyes brightened, as though he understood something. “Oh! Were you and InuYasha playing when you heard me?”

“Uhh . . . .”

“Shippou!”

Kagome turned in time to see Miroku come charging down the forest path, sickle in hand and fierce look on his face. She’d never been more thankful to see Miroku as she was at that particular moment.

“Kagome,” Miroku remarked, skidding to a stop as he caught sight of the kitsune in her arms. “I thought you and InuYasha were at the hot spring.”

“We were—”

“Can I come with you the next time you guys go play in the hot spring?” Shippou asked, bouncing around in Kagome’s arms. “Hey . . . if you guys were playing in the hot spring, why is his scent so strong on you?”

Miroku’s eyes lit with obvious amusement. “Why, Kagome . . . I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you looking quite so disheveled . . . .”

Kagome let go as Shippou hopped down to run toward the edge of the stream as InuYasha came back into view with a sopping wet stuffed animal in his hand. Trying in vain to drag her fingers through her very tangled hair, Kagome tried to save back the blush that rose with a fury.

“Baka!” Shippou hollered happily as InuYasha tossed the rescued ‘dog’ at him. He’d named the animal ‘Baka’, and though no one asked him why, Kagome had a fair guess as to the reason.

“Don’t scare me like that again, Shippou, or I’ll—” InuYasha began.

“Interesting . . .” Miroku interrupted.

“What?” InuYasha asked, narrowing his eyes at the monk.

“Oh, nothing,” Miroku remarked innocently.

“InuYasha, the next time you and Kagome go play in the hot spring, can I come?” Shippou asked, tugging on InuYasha’s pants-leg.

“ _Playing?_ ” InuYasha repeated, his amused gaze shifting to meet Kagome’s as her face warmed even more. She knelt down and retrieved InuYasha’s discarded clothing. “We’ll see, runt.”

Kirara’s roar announced Sango’s arrival. Letting the exterminator off her back, the fire cat transformed back into her tiny form. Sango, realizing that there wasn’t any real danger, dropped Hiraikotsu off her back to thump against the ground. She stared curiously from Kagome to InuYasha and back again. “Everything all right? I heard Shippou scream . . . .”

“InuYasha saved Baka,” Shippou remarked proudly, holding up the sopping stuffed dog for Sango’s approval.

“That was very nice of him,” Sango said with a grin. Miroku coughed.

InuYasha, embarrassed by the praise, started to stalk toward the forest path that led back to the village. Miroku’s coughing escalated into an all-out choke. The hanyou stopped and whirled around to glare at the monk. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Miroku gave up his attempt to hide his amusement and laughed outright. “Not a thing, InuYasha, but perhaps you ought to have Kagome tend those scratches on your back . . . how did you get those?”

Sango stepped closer, slowly moving around to look at InuYasha’s back. “Those look deliberate, InuYasha . . . what happened?”

Kagome’s face was scalding hot as she held out InuYasha’s clothes. He snatched them out of her hand and shrugged into the undershirt as Miroku grinned like an idiot and Sango continued to look confused.

“Kagome, if you scratched InuYasha while you were playing, he didn’t hurt you, did he?” Shippou asked, concern evident in his voice.

“No, Shippou,” she managed to croak out as InuYasha issued a warning growl. ‘ _Oh, for heaven’s sake . . . had anyone ever died out of sheer embarrassment?_ ’ Forcing a smile to hide her discomfort, she held her hand out to Shippou. “Why don’t you give me your dog? I’ll make sure he gets dried out, okay?”

Shippou handed over the bedraggled stuffed animal and bounded over to Kirara. “Race you back to the village!” Kirara mewled at him as the two took off down the path.

Miroku sighed and reached for Sango’s hand. “Come, Sango. I think everything’s in order here. See you two back at the village . . . assuming you’re done _playing_.”

InuYasha paused as he tucked in his haori to glare at the monk.

“Well . . . it wasn’t so bad,” Kagome remarked as she slowly stepped toward InuYasha. He took the stuffed animal and shook it. Kagome squealed as she was barraged with drops of water then watched in amusement as InuYasha stuck the damp toy into his shirt. “What are you doing?”

InuYasha shrugged, as though the answer to her question should have been obvious. “The runt said he wanted his toy to smell like me,” he replied. He took her hand but stopped to stare at her. “You’d better do something about _that_ as soon as we get back to the village.”

“ ‘That’, what?”

He blushed. “ _That_ , that!” he said with a snort, waving toward her skirt.

Kagome winced. She hadn’t forgotten her lack of coverage . . . she just hadn’t realized that InuYasha hadn’t forgotten, either.

“InuYasha, why do you think we could tell Shippou was in trouble? We were too far away for you to smell or hear him, and I certainly can’t do either . . . .”

InuYasha shrugged. “Keh! How should I know? Next time, though, the runt better really be in danger . . . .”

Kagome finally grinned as memories of their ‘playtime’ came back to her. A wave of desire hit her hard again, and InuYasha stopped abruptly and growled. She gasped as he scooped her up and darted off in the opposite direction of the village. “InuYasha?”

“If you’re going to run around smelling like that, then I’ll have to do something about it, won’t I?” he argued.

She blushed but smiled.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Hakama  
> _ ** _InuYasha’s pants_


	76. Bad Ideas

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” InuYasha asked for the hundredth time as the four of them approached Sesshoumaru’s front door. “I can’t see why we need to do this . . . what the hell is a bachelor party?”

Kagome grinned. “You’ll have fun,” she assured him. “Just behave, okay?”

“Keh! I’m not a pup, you know,” he snorted haughtily.

Stopping to straighten his white dress shirt over his shoulders, Kagome leaned up to kiss his cheek. His face reddened just a little but he didn’t pull away. “I’m sure that Nibori will be kind. He knows neither of you are familiar with this era, and watch your temper, okay?”

He frowned. “If you’d have let me bring Tetsusaiga—”

She sighed. “You can’t go running all over Tokyo with a sword strapped to your waist . . . .”

“Keh.”

Miroku stared dubiously at the mansion. “I think I’m with InuYasha on this . . . this may be a very bad idea . . . .”

“I’m surprised you’d think so. Guys normally have a lot of fun at their bachelor parties—or so I’ve been told,” Kagome remarked. Sango shifted nervously from one foot to the other, tugging at the too-short skirt that Kagome had coaxed her into wearing. Though it was longer than most of Kagome’s other ones, the skirt wasn’t nearly as long as the one Sango normally wore. Kagome smiled as her friend fidgeted.

“And what goes on at this party you’re going to?” InuYasha asked, suspicion lighting his amber eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest in his normal ‘don’t-you-dare-mess-with-me’ stance.

Kagome wrinkled her nose. “Not much, really. Just presents, chocolate, gossip . . . that sort of thing.”

The front door opened and Nibori stepped back to invite them inside. “Welcome! Father will be ready in a minute, then we can go.”

“Father?” InuYasha bit out. “Sesshoumaru’s coming?”

Nibori made a face. “That was pretty much the same response I got from him, but it was either he comes with us or he stays here at the bachelorette party . . . .”

“This can’t be good,” Miroku muttered as he followed the others into the mansion.

Kagome had to agree. “Maybe you guys out to swing past the shrine and pick up Tetsusaiga . . . .”

Nibori nodded slowly. He’d obviously been told at one point or another that Tetsusaiga kept InuYasha’s youkai blood in check. “Certainly.”

InuYasha was giving Leikizu the third degree about the happenings planned for the bachelorette party. Kagome leaned closer to Nibori. “Who else is going to be at this bachelor party?”

Nibori shrugged. “Just a few old friends. I’m sure everyone will be fine.”

Kagome wasn’t sure she liked the way Nibori seemed to avoid a direct answer to her question. She sighed. ‘ _Old friends? Youkai, then . . . . But who?_ ’

The doorbell rang, and Kagome jumped. Nibori chuckled as he opened to door to admit the guest. Kagome stared at the couple, feeling as though she really ought to know them. She looked so familiar, her light lavender-on-silver hair and piercing purple eyes reminded her of . . . “Shiori?”

The bat hanyou grinned and hugged Kagome as the man behind her shifted a little uncomfortably. “You’ve met my mate, right? He speaks so highly of you . . . and InuYasha, too.” Shiori moved over to greet InuYasha and the others as Kagome turned to stare at Shiori’s mate, who was holding a stack of bags and boxes. Nibori took the festively wrapped gifts and disappeared into the living room.

Incredibly tall with kind blue eyes the color of the sky, his dark brown hair was caught back in a neat queue at the nape of his neck, and when he saw her, he smiled bashfully. “Hello, Kagome.”

“I know you,” she said slowly, leaning her head to the side as InuYasha stepped up beside her.

“Jinenji?” InuYasha remarked with obvious surprise. “You and Shiori, huh?”

Jinenji nodded. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Not at all,” Kagome said before InuYasha could stick his foot in his mouth. “I always knew you had a good heart. I’m sure that Shiori saw it, too.”

Sesshoumaru descended the winding marble staircase wearing a dour expression and an impeccably tailored black Armani suit. “Shall we before I change my mind?” he asked after bestowing a chaste kiss on Leikizu’s cheek.

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue. Miroku propelled him forward with a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, InuYasha. It’ll be painless.”

“For me, maybe. Can’t promise it won’t be for him.”

Nibori stepped onto the porch. “Father, Aunt Kagome asked that we stop by the shrine to pick up Tetsusaiga.”

Sesshoumaru flicked his cold gaze over his half-brother. “Forget that you needed it, baka?”

“Not hardly, bastard.”

“Behave yourselves, ladies,” Nibori said with a low bow. “Gentlemen?”

The door closed behind them. Kagome shook her head at the last look InuYasha had shot her. As though he was heading out to his own funeral, he looked like he wanted to grab her and run. Turning around to see Sango’s reluctant expression, Kagome could only sigh and giggle. “Is anyone else coming?”

Leikizu nodded as she led the women into the living room. “Ayame is coming, and I think she’s bringing her daughters.”

“How many daughters?” Kagome asked.

Shiori giggled. “Ten.”

Kagome gasped. “Ten? How many sons?”

Leikizu rolled her eyes. “One.”

“If Ayame is coming, does that mean . . . ?” Sango began slowly.

Kagome stifled a groan.   “Let’s hope they remember to pick up Tetsusaiga,” she said with a rueful grin. “Then again . . . maybe not . . . .”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

InuYasha wrinkled his nose at the pungent aromas wafting through the dimly lit club. hand on Tetsusaiga’s hilt as though to action lent him a measure of comfort, he glanced around with a scowl as they were greeted by a very scantily clad woman and led to a very large table near the back of the huge room. The pounding music was enough to make his head hurt, and InuYasha had to wonder just how the other youkai could stand it at all. Within moments, he was ready to whine from the pain in his skull. The others seemed completely unaffected.

“Oi!”

InuYasha stifled a growl at the sound of that voice. “Kouga’s here?” he snarled to himself.

Nibori chuckled. “Well, of course! When I mentioned the bachelor party, he insisted that he come, too. Do you not care for him, Uncle?”

InuYasha didn’t deign to answer and contented himself with stabbing his nephew with a glare for his troubles.

“If it isn’t dog-shit! How’ve you been, mutt-face?”

“Fucking hell, you’re not dead?” InuYasha asked with a snort.

“Not hardly. This is my son, Daichi. Daichi, meet dog-shit.”

Daichi looked confused at the introduction, and he glanced nervously from his father to InuYasha and back. Finally giving up trying to make sense of the odd undertones in the conversation, Daichi bowed slightly and excused himself to introduce himself to Miroku instead.

Miroku leaned over toward InuYasha. “This doesn’t seem so bad.”

InuYasha wasn’t inclined to agree. “Keh.”

Sesshoumaru looked like the entire affair bored him out of his mind. InuYasha had to agree with him there. He could think of a million things he’d rather be doing, like battling Naraku all over again . . . .

InuYasha flattened his ears against his head, wishing that he could block the noise that drilled through his skull. Another scantily clad woman stopped beside him. “What’ll you have?” she asked with a fake smile. Heavily perfumed to the point that InuYasha wanted to cover his face, he stared in disbelief at the pasty white face, the false-looking red lips, and the dirty eyes that looked like the wench had been rolling around in fireplace ashes.

“Sake,” Nibori answered when InuYasha didn’t answer. “For everyone.”

“Brandy for me,” Sesshoumaru interrupted with a flick of his claws.

She nodded and skulked away. InuYasha covered his nose as she retreated. “This place reeks,” he grumbled.

“Oh, kami,” Miroku muttered as he smacked InuYasha’s arm with his knuckles. InuYasha glanced up. Miroku was staring away from the table with his mouth hanging slightly open and a light flush creeping up his cheeks. Against his better judgment, InuYasha followed the monk’s gaze.

“What the . . . _hell_ . . . ?” InuYasha choked in disbelief. A woman was dancing—or seemed to be dancing—around a raised floor around a pole that extended to ceiling, gyrating her body in a vastly disturbing way. Removing her clothes as she pranced around, InuYasha quickly looked away as he shot out of his chair, grabbing Miroku by the back of his shirt despite the monk’s protests, and stomped toward the door as his face was enveloped in a furious blush.

“Oh, InuYasha! What are you doing here?”

He stopped short as he nearly ran down the old swordsmith. “Totosai? What are you doing here?”

Totosai scratched his nearly bald head. “I don’t remember . . . Oh . . . the girls! I’m here to see those dancing girls. They’re pretty . . . .”

Controlling the desire to thump the old man, InuYasha growled. “The dancing girls?” he repeated incredulously.

“Master Totosai! You did make it!” Nibori greeted as he stepped up behind InuYasha.

Totosai headed over to the table as InuYasha pinned his nephew with a glower. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Miroku’s already perverted enough. You think this was a good idea, did you?” InuYasha demanded.

Nibori chuckled. “It’s all in good fun, Uncle, I swear. Now come back to the table. I’ll even buy you both lap dances.”

InuYasha’s gaze narrowed even more. “What?”

Nibori’s grin widened. “You’ll see . . . .”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sango cast Kagome a scared glance as she hesitantly ripped the paper off the first box Leikizu handed her. “This is from Shiori and Jinenji.”

A look of utter confusion surfaced on Sango’s face as she stared at the contents of the box. She pulled it out slowly, eyes widening as she held up the white satin teddy. A dark flush washed over her pale skin, and she dropped the lingerie with a sharp gasp.

“I can’t . . . . Where would I wear something like that?” Sango asked, her voice a little faint.

Kagome giggled. “You could wear it on your wedding night. I’ll bet Miroku would love it.” The other females laughed as Leikizu passed the garment around for their collective inspection.

“But how would you even put it on?” Sango asked, brow furrowing as she examined the garment just a little.

“The fun isn’t putting it on, Sango. The fun’s in taking it off,” one of Ayame’s daughters remarked, drawing more laughter from the women.

Sango’s blush deepened as she shook her head. “Oh, I couldn’t . . . . I mean, thank you, Shiori, but—”

Shiori waved her hand. “You’ll want that eventually, trust me.”

Leikizu plopped a gift bag on Sango’s lap. “And this is from Ayame and Kouga.”

Now Sango really looked nervous. After a helpless glance at Kagome, she reached into the bag and pulled out a shrinkwrapped box. ‘ _Body Condiments_ ,’ Kagome read over Sango’s shoulder. Stifling her own laughter as Sango tried to figure out what was in the box, the other women’s laughter escalated. Everyone in the room knew that Sango was from five hundred years in the past. They were undoubtedly having a great time teasing her.

Giving up, Sango shot Kagome a questioning glance.   Kagome leaned over to whisper in her ear. “They’re edible stuff . . . you put them on him, or he puts them on you and you . . . umm . . . you know, lick it off.”

Sango gasped as the box fell off her lap onto the floor. Ayame chuckled. “I think there’s more in that bag . . . .”

Kagome wondered for a moment whether or not Sango would have enough courage to reach into the bag again. She did, pulling out a fuzzy purple . . . something.”

Taking the ball of fluff out of Sango’s hands, Kagome untangled the knot of it and held them up for Sango’s inspection. “Wow, Sango . . . crotchless panties?”

“Don’t forget the matching bra,” another of Ayame’s daughters piped up.

“Crotchless . . . ?” Sango repeated.   Finally realizing what the women meant, Sango started coughing wildly.

Leikizu chuckled. “Oh, here’s one for Kagome, from Shiori and Jinenji.”

“Me?” Kagome asked as Leikizu handed her a box. “But—”

“You didn’t get a bachelorette party! What was InuYasha thinking?” Ayame asked with a wink.

“He didn’t know, and—”

“Open it!” Shiori insisted as she clapped her hands in anticipation.

Sango looked noticeably relieved as Kagome hesitated, opening the gift in her lap.   Tearing away the paper and opening the garment box, Kagome felt her entire face flush as she stared at the crimson stretch lace catsuit. “Uhh . . . .”

Shiori giggled. “Well, you know, dogs love to chase cats . . . .”

The other women laughed as Kagome fanned her flaming face with a limp hand. Leikizu dropped a bag that looked suspiciously similar to the one that Sango had gotten from Kouga and Ayame into her lap. She got a box, too, but hers said, _’10 Games for Lovers’_. Kagome wasn’t sure what to think of that, but she grinned as she pulled out a pair of regular cotton bikini panties with a matching bra. Dancing over the red fabric were little white dogs. ‘ _Maybe InuYasha won’t shred this set_ ,’ she thought with a secretive smile.

They opened more gifts, each one drawing the desired embarrassment from the recipients. Ayame and Kouga’s ten daughters, though they’d never met, seemed to have heard a lot about Kagome in particular, and did seem to know about Sango, too. That stinker, Nibori had given her a huge bathing kit, complete with unscented everything, which would actually be nice for InuYasha and his overly-sensitive nose. By the time Leikizu dropped one last box into Kagome’s lap, she was really, really afraid to open it.

“This is from Sesshoumaru and me.”

With a deep breath, Kagome opened the box. Nestled in the folds of silver tissue paper was a beautiful nightgown. Made of fine cream silk, the simple sheathe-style gown would probably reach mid-thigh and was split up one side to her hip. A slightly longer matching robe, embroidered in crimson with the Inu no Taisho’s seal was a beautiful compliment, and a pair of dainty little slippers completed the ensemble. “This is lovely,” Kagome said softly. “But—”

Leikizu smiled almost sadly and patted her shoulder. “That is not Sesshoumaru’s seal. His seal is always in blue. InuYasha’s is crimson. The mark, itself, is that of their father.”

She shook her head as she traced the embroidery. “I didn’t know InuYasha had a seal.”

“InuYasha probably doesn’t know he has a seal. He wasn’t instructed in such things.” Taking a delicate sip of the gingerale in her glass, Leikizu’s gaze seemed overly bright, as though she had tears gathering behind her eyes. “We’ve waited a very long time to give you this, Kagome. Wear it with pride.”

Kagome nodded. “I will.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“You care not for the bachelor party?”

InuYasha shifted his glower to meet his brother’s bored stare. “Not particularly. Am I supposed to?”

Sesshoumaru’s eyebrows arched slightly, the only change in his stoic expression. “But the monk is enjoying himself,” he commented, nodding slightly toward Miroku, who was staring at the current dancer with obvious interest.

“Close your mouth, you lecher,” InuYasha growled. Miroku either didn’t hear him or was ignoring him. Entranced by the beat that made InuYasha’s head pound, Miroku didn’t even blink an eye as the hanyou waved his hand before the monk’s face. Leaning to the side without saying a word, Miroku just gawked at the woman as she twisted and writhed against that pole.

“What’s the fucking point of this?” InuYasha growled as he slouched in his chair.

“It’s human tradition, baka. Surely you wouldn’t begrudge your friend a bit of it?”

InuYasha didn’t think that deserved an answer.   Totosai sat down in the empty chair between the brothers. “So, InuYasha, how’s that son of yours?”

InuYasha did a double take. “My what?”

Catching the glare that Sesshoumaru directed at the swordsmith did little to dispel the feeling that there was something that someone really needed to tell him. InuYasha stared between the two as he dug his claws into the table. “Did I say son? I meant mate . . . didn’t I?” Totosai hurried on to say.

“I think you’ve been holed up in your cave too long, Totosai,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he downed the rest of the amber liquid in his glass. “That baka barely managed to claim his mate, let alone get a son out of it.”

InuYasha opened his mouth to retort but was cut short by another loud sneer. “Oh, hell, tell me he didn’t just say you finally broke down and pissed on Kagome.”

“Shut the fuck up, Kouga,” InuYasha snarled.

“So was it a good thirty seconds for you, mutt-face? Though I doubt Kagome enjoyed—”

“No,” Miroku broke in, suddenly deciding that the conversation was more interesting than the half-naked women. “She quite enjoyed it, if the scratches on InuYasha’s back meant anything . . . .”

“I think I shall be ill,” Sesshoumaru commented as InuYasha turned to glower at the guest of honor.

“Can it, will you?” InuYasha hollered. “I hate all of you, I swear it! Every single one of you pisses me right off, and—”

“Hi.” All male heads turned to stare at the very well-endowed, barely dressed ebony haired woman. “Are you InuYasha?” she asked, her voice a throaty purr.

“Yeah,” InuYasha answered, suspicion crashing over him as the girl smiled through the muck of paint on her face. “Why?”

“Your nephew says to enjoy,” she said, as she sank down on his lap and started grinding her rear against him.

InuYasha shot out of his chair, unceremoniously dumping the woman on the floor. “What the _fuck_ do you think you’re doing, bitch?” he snarled. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Relax, mutt-nuts,” Kouga drawled as the girl muttered a few very choice, very unladylike curses as she got to her feet and stomped away. “She was just giving you a lap dance.”

“I don’t fucking think so,” InuYasha growled, hand gripping Tetsusaiga despite everyone’s warnings against drawing the sword in public.

Kouga rolled his eyes, arms crossed over his chest. “Hell, even your friend is taking it better than you. Check out the monk.”

InuYasha’s head swiveled to stare as Miroku sat with an almost comically petrified look on his face, as though he was scared to death of the wench who was doing her best to get the monk’s attention. Miroku shot InuYasha a look that was very close to full-blown panic. InuYasha crossed his arms and leaned back.

“I think he wants you to rescue him, InuYasha,” Kouga leaned over to mutter.

InuYasha nodded slowly. “Too fucking bad I ain’t gonna.”

The wench leaned forward, wiggling her ass in Miroku’s face. InuYasha covered his mouth with his hand as the monk proceeded to turn ten shades of red. “Damn, Miroku. You skipped right over ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red,” InuYasha couldn’t help but say as Miroku leaned as far back in his chair as he could without tipping over.

“I almost feel sorry for him,” Kouga went on, grimacing at the look on Miroku’s face.

“Keh. Almost. Fucking lecher loves asses. Let him rub that one. Maybe she won’t slap him for it.”

Daichi sidled up beside them as InuYasha took pity on Miroku. Leaning over to grab the wench’s wrist, he glared at her. “Enough. He’s getting married tomorrow, and you’re finished. Now get the hell out of here.”

As soon as she was gone, Miroku shot to his feet, his face awash with instant and complete relief. InuYasha cocked his eyebrow at the monk. “A little _too_ close?”

Miroku shrugged as he downed the contents of his glass then coughed and sputtered. “Not at all,” he croaked, wiping his eyes as the sake burned its way down into his stomach.

InuYasha snorted as he turned in time to see Kouga straighten up after saying something to Sesshoumaru. Both the wolf youkai as well as his half-brother were staring at him, and InuYasha’s glare narrowed as he shifted his eyes from one to the other. “What?”

Kouga grinned. “Not a thing, dog-shit . . . .”

Sesshoumaru lifted his hand to bring a waitress to their table. “Kouga simply told me that the . . . entertainer should be arriving at the mansion any time now.”

For some reason, InuYasha didn’t like the way Sesshoumaru had said that word . . . . “Entertainer?”

“What sort of entertainer?” Miroku asked, having finally gotten over his bout of sake-induced coughing.

Kouga shrugged. “Nothing worse than we’ve seen tonight.”

InuYasha slowly turned to meet Miroku’s gaze. They stared at each other for a minute before their heads turned back to stare at Sesshoumaru and Kouga. “What do you mean, no worse than what we’ve . . . ? Oh, _hell_ no,” InuYasha ground out. “Come on, monk.”

Miroku, having realized exactly what InuYasha was thinking, headed out right after InuYasha, a grim determination etched in his expression. “Right behind you.”

Behind them, Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Look what you’ve done, Kouga. Told you not to tell him. The hot-headed baka is going to go in there and pull Tetsusaiga on the man you’ve hired.”

Kouga grinned. “Yeah, and if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the whole damn thing.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome was positive that her face was going to be red forever. Pressing her palms against her cheeks, she tried to look anywhere but at the half-naked man in the middle of the room. Gyrating to some cheesy cd he’d brought as dance music, there was no way under the sun she was going to look.

Sango’s freaked-out expression as she stared at Kagome in blatant shock might have been amusing at any other time. The other women were giggling and pointing, whispering and generally enjoying the fun. Kagome wished she were anywhere but where she was.

Sango gasped and let a small scream escape her as the man stalked toward her and proceeded to shake everything he had very close to the exterminator’s mortified face. Sango squeezed her eyes closed as the man jerked his rip-away pants off and draped them around Sango’s neck. Sango tugged them off and tried to shove them back into the man’s arms. He laughed and danced away, back toward the center of the room in nothing but a tiny little g-string pouch that barely covered anything.

“Come, now, ladies! I need someone to dance with me!” the man called out. “How about you?” he said, grabbing hold of Kagome’s hands and dragging her to her feet. She tried to pull away. He laughed and caught her around her waist, grinding against her as she tried her best not to slap him silly.

Leikizu started toward them looking as though she realized that Kagome didn’t find it amusing at all and probably realizing that, given InuYasha’s keen nose coupled with his all-too-volatile jealous streak that the results could be dire. She never made it there. The front door crashed open, and Kagome froze with a muffled groan at the bellowed, “Oi, wench, damn it, where the fuck are you?”

Seconds later, he stalked into the living room. Seeing Kagome with the dancer’s arms still on her waist, the hanyou didn’t bother asking questions. Tetsusaiga blazed to life in a flash of sapphire light, and he advanced on the dancer who was backing away, dragging Kagome with him. Miroku ran into the living room seconds later. Kagome jerked away from the man and ran over to InuYasha. “InuYasha, it wasn’t—”

“Shut up, wench,” he growled. “What the hell do you think you were doing with your fucking hands on my mate?” he snarled as he prowled closer to the terrified man. “Give me one good reason not to shove Tetsusaiga up your ass.”

“InuYasha, he’s human!” Miroku called out from behind them. Sango was standing next to him, having obviously explained things to him.

“Like I give a fuck,” InuYasha shot back.

‘ _I’ve got to do something_!’ Kagome thought wildly. The look on InuYasha’s face told her quite plainly that he was dead serious. ‘ _But he can’t go around killing everyone that touches me, either, and he didn’t really try to hurt me . . . . Think, Kagome!_ ’ She could purify him. She winced. She didn’t really want to do that, at all. But what else could she do?

As if from somewhere far away, Kagome could hear the other women trying to talk InuYasha into putting away his sword to let the man leave. He wasn’t listening. Closer and closer, he lifted the sword to strike as the poor dancer cowered in the corner, left with no way of escaping. She could hear the man begging InuYasha to let him live, and Kagome, in a last ditch effort to stop InuYasha, ran in front of him and grabbed his face in her hands. “Kagome, get the hell out of the way,” he demanded as she pulled his head down and rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

For a moment, he tried to pull away from her. She deepened the kiss when she felt his arms let the sword drop slightly. She could hear muffled movement as the man got out of the house as quickly as he could. InuYasha held Tetsusaiga with one hand while his other arm slipped around her waist, drawing her closer as she kissed him.

“All right, miko, you’ve done your good deed for the day,” Sesshoumaru remarked dryly.

InuYasha, realizing where they were and who all had witnessed their kiss, flushed as he turned to glower at his brother. “Damn it,” he snarled, “you let that bastard get away.”

Kagome was relieved to see that everyone else had been taken to the dining room for refreshments.

“You’ve got serious impulse control issues, mutt-face,” Kouga remarked. “Maybe you ought to consider therapy.”

“Damn you, Kouga! you did this, didn’t you? Did you think I’d be thankful?”

“No, but I thought Kagome and Sango might be.” That said, Kouga stalked out of the room to find his mate.

“Keh! Fat fucking chance, bastard.” InuYasha turned back to glare at Kagome. “Why the hell did you let him go?”

“Because he didn’t do anything except what he was paid to do, and—”

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Yes, and I’ll have to pay him an absolutely exorbitant amount of money to keep him from filing charges with the police, I’d wager.”

Dropping Tetsusaiga into the scabbard, InuYasha snorted. “Keh! Like I care how much you have to pay the bastard! He had his fucking hands all over—”

“That’s always been your problem, hasn’t it, baka? You’ve never cared, not when it could have mattered, not when you could have done something to change your pathetic destiny!” Sesshoumaru pinned InuYasha with an irate glare. “You leave it to everyone else, to fix your mistakes. I’ve fixed all I can, InuYasha. The rest is up to you.”

InuYasha stared at his brother’s retreating form with a confused yet wary expression.

Kagome frowned, just as confused by Sesshoumaru’s outburst as InuYasha was. “What do you think he meant?”

He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know,” he answered, his tone soft, thoughtful. “But I intend to find out.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Daichi_**  
>  " _grand first son_ "


	77. Operation: Payback

The silence that surrounded the lone figure standing on the hillside was a bitter thing. Cruel, taunting, as though it were mocking him, he stared at the festively lit village in the distance with a curious melancholy. ‘ _InuYasha is there. They’ve accepted him? The influence of the miko . . . . She has made them see . . . ._ ’

How could it be?

The wind rose, escalated, fitting his mood so perfectly. Gaze shifting to the horizon as the sun sank below the trees, a hint of a brewing storm filling his nose with the pungent scent of the rising earth. He blinked, no change in expression, as the familiar scent came to him. He didn’t turn, made no overtures to indicate that he knew of the intruder. Eyes fixed on the village so far away, only to the ears of the youkai could the sound of merriment be discerned.

“Sesshoumaru-sama.”

“Why are you here?”

“I come to warn you. Norimitsu is coming for you.”

Sesshoumaru’s golden gaze shifted to the side, the slightest movement as his eyebrows drew together. “This Sesshoumaru fears not the pathetic likes of Norimitsu.”

“You need not fear him, Sesshoumaru-sama. Simply accept my warning for what it is.”

“Save your warnings for the weak, Katosan.”

Katosan nodded slightly. “And InuYasha-sama?”

Sesshoumaru’s gaze shifted back to the village. “What of him?”

Katosan shrugged, a half-attempt to show deference where it was due, even to a worthless half-breed. “Norimitsu wants to destroy him, as well.”

Sesshoumaru’s lips twisted into a vague half-smile. “Many are those foolish enough to try to quell the threat InuYasha poses. They learn.” Turning just enough to peek over his shoulder at the other inu-youkai, Sesshoumaru nodded once. “Surely you know of this, first hand, or am I mistaken?”

Katosan winced. “It was not InuYasha-sama who sought to destroy me but his miko.”

Sesshoumaru chuckled, a dry sound—one that was rarely heard. “I warned you, Katosan. Pity you heeded not my words.”

“So you did,” Katosan agreed with a slight nod. “So you did.”

“From whom did this information come to you?” Sesshoumaru asked, deliberately ignoring Katosan’s cryptic tone.

Katosan shrugged. “The warning came from Ayamakita, though I’ve not seen her since.”

Sesshoumaru’s eyes flared slightly at the mention of that name. “And you are fool enough to believe anything she has to say?”

“Her warning was clear enough though I can understand why you harbor reluctance to believe her. There used to be a time when you would have listened to her.”

Sesshoumaru nodded vaguely. “Perhaps, once.”

Katosan stared at the tai-youkai’s rigid stance, the icy demeanor that veiled him like a cloak. The very things that made Sesshoumaru a feared and respected leader were the very things that demanded a life of solitude. “Norimitsu is more dangerous in his ability to commission others to aide him.”

“That may be. Too bad he’s lost the swaying factor.”

“What do you mean?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged slightly. “The Shikon no Tama. The miko has dispelled it.”

Katosan seemed surprised by the information. “Does she possess that much power?”

Sesshoumaru’s cool gaze flicked over the fellow inu-youkai. “Ask me not such foolish questions. You know she does, and now her power is far, far greater.”

Katosan’s amazement grew. “Greater?” he echoed. “Was she not strong enough? How would she gain a greater power?”

Sesshoumaru smiled slightly, no more than a lightening of his eyes, a slight turn of his lips. “She has been mated, Katosan. Your attempt to separate the two has failed, and InuYasha . . . . He is stronger, as well.”

“You sound as though you find this troubling,” Katosan pointed out.

The hint of a smile faded quickly. “Do not underestimate me, Katosan. If I wished to destroy InuYasha, I would do it. There is no point. There is no need. InuYasha is reckless. He shall destroy himself with minimal assistance from outside interference.”

Katosan’s gaze narrowed. “And you would seek to prevent this?”

Sesshoumaru stared at the village once more. “I seek to aid nothing, just as I seek to prevent nothing. I change no one’s destinies. Remember that, Katosan.”

Katosan nodded slowly, eyes lighting with ironic amusement. “Understood.”

The wind shifted, tossing Sesshoumaru’s silvery hair into his face. “Was there something else, Katosan?”

Digging into his sleeve, Katosan pulled out a very old scroll and handed it to the tai-youkai. “It is time to give you this.”

Sesshoumaru stared at the rolled parchment with a marked frown. Sealed closed with a smudge of white wax, the scroll still carried the hint of a familiar scent. “And what is this?”

Katosan shrugged as he turned to leave. “It is for InuYasha-sama, should you choose to give it to him. He might find it of sovereign interest . . . eventually.”

Sesshoumaru watched as the youkai disappeared into the trees before his gaze settled back on the roll of flimsy paper. ‘ _For InuYasha, is it? And I am now nothing more than his delivery service._ ’ A bitter grimace surfaced, one that bespoke the irritation, the constant abrasion that everyone insisted on coddling the half-breed. ‘ _And so it shall be . . . at my own discretion_.’

Sesshoumaru stared at the scroll for another long moment then stuffed it in his armor before turning his back on the sight of the village below and walking away.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“InuYasha?”

Peeking over his arm toward the ground where Kagome stood below, he snorted. “Is that feast over yet?”

She giggled. “Yes . . . .”

Dropping out of the tree to land in front of her, InuYasha quirked an eyebrow as he stared at Kagome’s mischievous little smile. “What are you plotting?”

“I offered to help Sango get ready for her wedding night, is all . . . .”

InuYasha’s gaze narrowed as trepidation rose. “Why do I think this has something to do with me when it really shouldn’t?”

Her smile widened. “Well . . . .”

“Spit it out, sneaky wench. What are you thinking?” Her giggle was soft, soothing in his ears. Reaching up, leaning against him, she captured one of the fuzzy appendages in her nimble fingers and rubbed.   “Keh. You use me for my ears, I know it.”

“And you love it,” she mumbled as her giggle escalated. “Anyway, can you keep Miroku busy for a little while? Just long enough for me to help Sango?”

InuYasha heaved a long-suffering sigh as he eyed his mate with careful speculation. “And what’s in it for me?”

She grinned, her slight flush apparent even in the dim light of the fires—and the full moon. “Oh, I don’t know . . . maybe I can think of something . . . .”

“Keh.”

Leaning up to quickly kiss his cheek, she turned and ran off as he shook his head. _‘How does she do that?_ ’ he wondered as he stomped off with a loud snort of self-disgust that she could so easily manipulate him into doing her dirty work. Heading off to find the newly-married ex-monk, InuYasha sighed. ‘ _Because, baka, you like it when she manipulates you_.’

He snorted again but smiled just a little. ‘ _Shuddup_.’

Miroku watched in abject depression as Kagome took Sango’s hand and led her off toward the small hut the villagers had built for the couple. Situated next to the slightly larger hut that had been erected at the same time for Kagome, InuYasha, and Shippou, the only other hut on that side of the village was Kaede’s.

InuYasha watched as the lecher got up to follow the women. His hand, heavy on Miroku’s shoulder, stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.

Miroku shook his head and sighed. “Well, I was going to go chase down my wife,” he grumbled.

InuYasha swung Miroku around and slapped him on the back, sending Miroku staggering forward.   Tossing a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder, Miroku made a point of imitating InuYasha’s infamous, “Keh! You can’t maim me until after my wedding night,” he pointed out.

“Come on, pervert,” InuYasha growled, grabbing Miroku and tossing him over his shoulder as he bolted out of the village and into the forest despite Miroku’s loud protests.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Miroku hollered as InuYasha sped through the trees. “This is just a little embarrassing, InuYasha . . . think you could put me down now?”

“Nope,” InuYasha answered with a grunt as he pushed off the ground.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Will you shut up already? Sango’s got some sort of surprise for you or something.”

Miroku considered that for a moment then sighed. “Aren’t there other things you’d rather be doing than dragging me wherever it is you’re going?”

“Keh.”

InuYasha stopped in the middle of a small clearing deep in the forest and dumped Miroku off his shoulder. The monk landed on his rear with a wince. Miroku sat up and pinned the hanyou with a glower as InuYasha schooled his features. “So how long are we going to stay out here?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Dunno.”

“This . . . isn’t very amusing, InuYasha.”

“Do I look amused, monk?”

That didn’t appease Miroku, either. “Look, can we just go back now?”

“Nope. Kagome said to keep you busy awhile.” The monk stood up slowly, hands on hips as he glared at InuYasha. Unimpressed by the monk’s show of irritation, InuYasha crossed his arms and snorted. “It ain’t working, lecher.”

Miroku’s glare darkened to a mutinous scowl. “InuYasha . . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes as the monk turned away to stare at the surroundings, and likely to get a grip on his rising temper. With a slight smile, InuYasha stepped back, retreating in silence, melding into the forest before the monk was any wiser.

‘ _Keh!_ ’ InuYasha gloated as he leapt into the night. ‘ _That’ll teach that monk to keep making my life hell. Purify yourself, you lecher._ ’ Very deliberately, InuYasha pushed aside the inner voice that told him that Kagome was very likely going to give him ten kinds of hell over this . . . . ‘ _So he can’t defile Sango for a few extra hours. He’ll jump on her the first chance he gets, anyway. It’s not gonna kill him . . . and as for Kagome . . . Keh! I’m not scared of her!_ ’

All the same, he slowed just a little and considered going back for the monk. In the end, though, he snorted loudly and increased his speed as he neared the familiarity of his forest.

Dropping to a walk just outside the village, InuYasha sighed. ‘ _Who are you trying to fool, baka? She’s going to kill you . . . and if Kagome doesn’t, Sango just might . . . . Wonder if Mrs. Higurashi still hates me . . . ?_ ’ He was seriously considering going to find out the answer to that question when an all-too-familiar voice called his name.

“InuYasha? Where’s Miroku?”

“Miroku?” InuYasha echoed as he blanked his features and turned to gaze at his smiling mate.

Kagome’s smile faltered as her eyes took on a suspicious glint. “InuYasha, what did you do?”

Pinking cheeks that were hidden in the shadows of night, InuYasha turned his face away, unable to meet her penetrating gaze. “Keh! You’re supposed to trust your mate, wench, or didn’t I tell you that?”

“Keh,” she retorted, arms crossed over her chest as she narrowed her eyes even more. “You’re acting weird, and Miroku’s not here . . . what did you do with him?”

“You _said_ to get him out of here,” InuYasha pointed out, unable to meet her stare as he stepped back. “Anyway, I just did what you told me to do.”

“What I . . . ? InuYasha . . . .” Suspicion became alarm as she tapped her foot impatiently. “You’d better undo whatever it is you’ve done, or you’ll be _so_ sorry!”

“Keh! I’m not _scared_ of you!”

She sighed out of sheer frustration. “You will be, if you don’t go get him . . . you left him somewhere, didn’t you?” InuYasha didn’t answer as he scrunched up his shoulders and flattened his ears before Kagome started yelling in earnest. “Now quit pouting and go get him!” She started away, having had the final word, but stopped and spun around to glare at him. “You’d better hope Sango doesn’t kill you, herself.”

“I’m _still_ not scared of you, wench!” he insisted stubbornly, stomping after her to prove his point and convincing himself that the only reason he stayed back was because he wasn’t going to _run_ to catch up with her.

“InuYasha? Have you seen Miroku?”

InuYasha winced at the voice that called out to him. Turning slowly to face Sango, who was standing in the doorway of her hut with the bamboo curtain hiding most of her from view, InuYasha wondered whether he could get away with acting like he hadn’t heard her. ‘ _Keh . . . wishful thinking . . . and you may_ pretend _not to be scared of Kagome but you know Sango is a totally different story . . ._ .’

“Yeah, I saw him,” InuYasha mumbled. “Did you need him for something?”

The incredulity on Sango’s face might have been amusing—if her hand didn’t disappear from the doorframe, likely groping around for Hiraikotsu. “Keh!” he snorted as he turned on his heel and sped out of the village. “None of you women can take a joke, can you?”

It took another twenty minutes to reach the clearing where he’d dumped Miroku. The meadow was still there, but the monk was not. InuYasha shook his head slowly, envisioning the Great Hanyou Hunt that would happen if he didn’t find the damn lecher quickly. The idea that Kagome and Sango would be at the head of the mob after whatever part of him they could catch was enough to make him cringe as he lifted his head and sniffed the air for any sign of the monk.

His scent was still fresh, which meant that he couldn’t have gotten far. Following his nose, InuYasha lit out at a dead run.

“Miroku!” InuYasha hollered, scanning the dense forest. He didn’t have to go far. Sitting atop a fallen log glaring at him was the monk.

“I didn’t complain too much when Kaede just assumed I’d dishonor Sango by trying things with her before we were properly married,” Miroku commented as he stared through the canopy of leaves above at the full moon high overhead. InuYasha stopped and folded his arms together. “I didn’t get upset when you told Kagome’s mother that I was a pervert so that she’d ask me to sleep in the main house instead of in Kagome’s home with Sango.” Miroku shook his head slowly. “I didn’t even complain when you refused to get that dancing girl away from me sooner.” Turning his face to stare at InuYasha with a very dark scowl, Miroku drew a deep breath. “But this . . . ? I’m not supposed to be in the middle of the forest, completely alone on my wedding night! The least you could have done would have been to abandon me out here with Sango!”

“Keh!” InuYasha scoffed though he had the grace to flush—not that Miroku could see that in the darkness. “But it’s all fine for you to make jokes about Kagome and me?”

“I never—”

“The hell!”

“Well . . . maybe once or twice . . . .”

“Keh!”

Miroku sighed as the two fell silent. Forest creatures scurried about in the dark. Miroku made no move to get up, and InuYasha didn’t make any overtures, either. Suddenly Miroku chuckled. “All right, so I’ve not been as thoughtful as I should have been. I humbly apologize.”

InuYasha blinked in surprise. Rarely did he get any sort of apology from anyone. It seemed strange to him, and he blushed, shuffling his feet in the dirt. “I wasn’t _really_ going to leave you out here all night,” he grumbled.

Miroku recognized the surly words for what they were. “It’s all right. We were both wrong. To tell the truth, I was feeling a little anxious, anyway. I’ve never . . . well . . .” he trailed off then chuckled. “Let’s just say there wasn’t really any risk of running into one of my offspring somewhere.” InuYasha didn’t respond to that. He wasn’t sure how. “This is where you make a joke, InuYasha,” Miroku teased.

InuYasha shook his head. “Keh. We’re even.”

“Houshi-sama!” Sango called as Kirara landed in the tiny clearing.

Hopping off the fire cat’s back and casting InuYasha a withering glare, Kagome sighed. “I’m so sorry, Miroku, Sango . . . .”

“It’s fine, Kagome. No harm done,” Miroku assured her. “I had it coming.”

“Not on your wedding night, you didn’t,” she remarked. “Anyway, I’m going to walk back now . . . _alone_ ,” she reiterated when InuYasha started to follow her. “I brought my bow and arrows. I’m perfectly safe.”

“Keh! You’re not going anywhere without me, stupid wench.”

“Don’t call me stupid, baka!” she shot back.

“See you in the morning!” Sango called after their retreating forms.

“If he lives till morning,” Miroku remarked with a chuckle.

“I heard that, lecher!” InuYasha called back over his shoulder.

Kagome strode through the forest with a purpose behind her steps. InuYasha didn’t doubt that anything that thought about attacking her would think twice, if they were smart. Her miko aura crackled in the air with every movement. His ears flattened. She was going to clobber him.

“That was just mean, InuYasha,” she pointed out without missing a step.

“No real harm done.”

“How would you like it, if you were him? I’ll bet you’d be upset, too.”

“Hell, Kagome! He needles me about every fucking thing. I put him in his place one time, and you deal me a ration of shit for it. He deserved to sweat it, just this once.”

Kagome stopped dead in her tracks and swiveled her head slowly to stab InuYasha with an incredulous stare. “But on his wedding night? InuYasha . . . .” Little alarm bells rang in his head as she suddenly sauntered closer to wrap her arms around his neck. “Do you remember our first time?”

“Keh! That’s a stupid question! Of course I—”

“Then you should understand why they’d be upset . . . I mean, even if their first time isn’t as beautiful as ours was—”

He blinked in surprise as he wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. “Did you think it was . . . beautiful?”

She nodded, idly tracing circles with her index finger against his chest. “Uh huh . . . . Now don’t you feel bad that you tried to keep Sango and Miroku from having their night, too?”

InuYasha snorted. “Not especially.”

“InuYasha!” She tried to push away from him. He held on.

“Not so fast, wench. You came to me, remember?”

“You’re being impossible.”

“Because I’m not sorry that the monk got what was coming to him?”

“Maybe he deserved it, but did Sango?”

That gave him pause. InuYasha had to think about it. With a slight frown, a drooping of the ears, InuYasha sighed. “All right, so maybe she didn’t. I’m still not sorry, though . . . .”

“You’re being mean.”

“Keh! Kiss me and I’ll _pretend_ to be sorry.”

She leaned back to send him a chagrined look. “I don’t think I will, thanks.”

He sighed, ears flattening as he blinked innocently at her. “But I was going to bring him back.”

“I know you were . . . It was still a really cruel thing to do.”

He snorted, dropping his arms from her as he took her hand and started walking again. “You wanna talk about cruel? ‘Cruel’ is that pervert having to rub my nose in every single fucking thing that isn’t any of his business anyway. ‘Cruel’ is you, being mad at me for giving him have what he had coming. ‘Cruel’ is having to keep my hands off you because tonight is a _fucking full moon!_ ”

Kagome gasped softly and stopped. InuYasha stopped, too, and let go of her hand, folding his arms together over his chest. “I forgot about that,” she remarked with a grimace. Shaking her head, she pushed herself onto a boulder, legs dangling in the air. “That’s weird . . . does it mean that if we . . . well . . . if we were together tonight, I’d . . . ?”

“Keh!” InuYasha scoffed, cheeks reddening under the cover of night, “chew it to death, why don’t you?”

He could sense her own embarrassment as she shrugged almost off-handedly.   “I was just trying to clarify this, if you must know.”

He sighed. “Yes, wench, yes, that’s exactly what it meant. Not that _I_ would care, but your mother already hates me—”

Kagome’s soft giggle cut off his tirade. “She doesn’t hate you, InuYasha, and you know it.”

He snorted but reached up to pluck her off the rock. “Come on. I’ll bet the runt is panicking because we’re gone.”

Kagome let him pull her onto his back this time. He grinned. ‘ _At least she’s done being mad at me . . ._ .’

“Shippou’s staying with Kaede tonight,” she ventured to say. “I wasn’t sure how long we’d be gone, and I don’t like the idea of him being alone.”

“Keh. He’s not a baby.”

“I know . . . but he is still young.”

“By his age, I was alone all the time,” InuYasha pointed out as he pushed off the ground, soaring toward the village again.

Kagome sighed. “I know . . . I wish you hadn’t had to, and I don’t want Shippou to have to go through that, even for one night. ”

InuYasha swallowed hard and blinked his suddenly-burning eyes. “Yeah,” he rasped out. “I don’t want that, either.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Sango_** :  
>  _Wait . . . Do we get to have a wedding night or not_?


	78. Sensations

The sounds of the creatures in the darkened forest stilled as he wandered through the trees. As though they could sense the approach of the youkai, they were showing their just respect. Following her scent, he had come a long way in search of answers. She smelled as though her youki was greatly diminished. ‘ _What comes around goes around, does it not?_ ’

Rounding a small cliff, Sesshoumaru stopped and stared at the small cave. Not obvious to the naked eye, he blinked as he stared at the opening. ‘ _She is here_ ,’ he thought was he slowly stepped forward. But why was she hiding?

“Ayamakita,” he called out. “Come out.”

A low moan answered him. As if she couldn’t emerge from the cave, Sesshoumaru’s gaze narrowed as he slowly stepped forward again. “It isn’t like you to cower. It does better suit you, does it not?” he questioned as he ducked into the cave.

The lynx youkai lay curled on her side, her skin deathly pale, a stench of lingering illness clinging to the stagnant air in the cave. Sesshoumaru leaned his head to the side and tried not to smile. “Get caught in your own trap?”

“You don’t have a sympathetic bone in your body, do you, Sesshoumaru?” she rasped out, her normally sing-song voice tempered by weakness, by pain. “That bitch . . . I’ll kill her . . . .”

“And to whom do you refer?” Sesshoumaru pressed.

Ayamakita wheezed as she struggled to sit up. “InuYasha’s bitch,” she answered, wincing as she fell back on the ground. “Look what she’s done to me!”

“Ah, the miko. Did you make the mistake of underestimating her, as well?” Shaking his head slowly, clucking his tongue in mock dismay, Sesshoumaru stepped back as Ayamakita reached out in a silent entreaty for help. “Surely Katosan told you that the miko possessed vast spiritual power. Or did you think that Katosan lied to you?”

“You dare mock me, Sesshoumaru?” Ayamakita bit out, pushing herself up, using the wall to brace herself. “Cold bastard, aren’t you?”

“Better a bastard than a bitch in perpetual heat, Aya. Take care. This Sesshoumaru has allowed you to live.”

Ayamakita tried to laugh. The sound was more of a scratch in her throat than a sound of pleasure. “Watch your back, Sesshoumaru. It’d be a pity for someone to use you as their scratching post.”

He turned to leave, tossing back over his shoulder, “You’re in no real position to cast aspersions, are you? Pay attention, Ayamakita. Trifle with InuYasha and you run the risk of drawing the ire of his miko. Either of them is more than enough to handle the pathetic likes of you.”

Her invectives followed him as he strode out of the cave again, a small smile forming at the corners of his lips. Did it matter, how much he disliked his brother so long as someone dealt Ayamakita her long-needed comeuppance?

‘ _No_ ,’ he thought as he shifted his form into the ball of energy that would transport him away from her stench, ‘ _it doesn’t really matter at all_ . . . .’

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Sango watched in silence as Kagome and InuYasha disappeared into the trees. “That was just mean, InuYasha,” the miko pointed out.

“No real harm done,” he retorted.

“How would you like it, if you were him? I’ll bet you’d be upset, too.”

“Hell, Kagome! He needles me about every fucking thing. I put him in his place one time, and you deal me a ration of shit for it. He deserved to sweat it, just this once . . . .”

Sango sighed and shook her head before she dared peek at Miroku, a slight smile quirking the corners of her lips. “I told you that you ought not tease InuYasha so . . . .”

Miroku grimaced. “Surely you didn’t come all the way out here just to berate me for that,” he asked with a little smile of his own.

Sango’s grin widened. “Surely not,” she agreed.

Miroku sighed and stood up, pausing long enough to kiss her quickly before turning to Kirara. “Think you could take us home?” he asked the fire cat.

Kirara mewled and nodded her head as she shifted into her large form again. Miroku stopped Sango as she started to climb on Kirara’s back. With slightly trembling hands, he gently grabbed her waist and deposited her on the youkai before settling himself behind her and pulling her back against his chest as Kirara leaped off the ground.

“Did I get a chance to tell you how beautiful you were today? Not that you’re not normally beautiful . . . you were simply stunning today, Sango.”

Sango could feel the gentle flush as his breath brushed her cheek. “No, I don’t believe you did . . . .”

He chuckled, another round of soft whispers against her skin. “Then consider it said, and forgive me if I have to tell you every single day. I love you, you know?”

“Do you?” she managed to ask as her belly erupted in a heady churning sensation as he pulled her more securely against his chest. “H—houshi-sama . . . .”

“When I am this close to you, I feel like I’m holding the entire world, right here,” he murmured.

She smiled and leaned back against his chest. “I can’t believe we’re finally married,” she admitted. “I almost thought it wouldn’t happen.”

Miroku sighed as the first droplets of rain fell. “How befitting,” he mumbled as a rumble of thunder crackled through the air. “At least I’ll keep your back dry,” he quipped as the rain started to pellet them harder.

Sango craned her neck to stare at her new husband. Staring down at her with a small grin and gaze lit with a humbling love, so complete that the emotion alone seemed to wrap around Sango’s very soul, she leaned up, kissed his cheek.

Approaching the village, Kirara uttered a slight growl to announce to the humans that they’d reached the intended destination. Miroku slid off the cat’s back and reached up to catch Sango. Normally she didn’t let him help her down. This time, however, she blushed as his hands caught around her waist, a lingering caress as she lit on the ground beside him. A timid smile rewarded him as she slipped out of his grasp and hurried into the hut to make sure the fire was still burning bright and to drag out a change of clothing for Miroku.

He followed her inside with Kirara in tow. The youkai stretched out before the door, as though making sure no one would disturb the newlyweds any more tonight. “Going somewhere, Sango?” he asked, noting the clothes she’d laid out on the unrolled pallets.

She blushed. “Well, no, but you’re all wet, and—”

He made a face as he made a point to stare down at his soaked youkai exterminator’s armor. “Fire resistant doesn’t mean water resistant, I take it?”

Sango grinned. “I suppose not. Here . . . get them off, and I’ll spread them to dry,” she offered, stepping forward and extending her hand to take his clothing.

Arching an eyebrow at her, Miroku chuckled softly. “Will you, now?”

Her blush was immediate as she whirled around, her belly tying itself in thick knots. “I . . . .”

His arms wrapped around her, pulled her back against his chest. She felt his lips press against her temple as he chuckled again. “Be easy, Sango. I was but teasing you.”

“Were you?” she asked, eyes drifting closed as he kissed her temple, tightened his hold on her. “I love you.”

“Not nearly so much as I worship you, my goddess,” he mumbled.

“Blasphemy,” she gasped as his lips lingered on her temple. “Houshi-sama . . . .”

“No, Sango, just a man . . . and I want you.”

Slowly turning her to face him, he held her close, tipping her chin up, lips dropping to hers in the softest of caresses. She sighed as a stuttering warmth unfurled in her belly, a low credence, a gentle pressure.

A tide of something fierce and magical, a vague sense of a shift in equilibrium as Miroku’s lips coaxed hers open, as his tongue slid into her mouth. A violet shockwave, a pulse of pleasure erupting somewhere so deep that it shifted the center of gravity inside her, wringing a moan, eliciting a sigh. The flick of his tongue against hers was enough to weaken her knees as she fell into him, only to be caught and held, cosseted close in the warmth of his embrace.

Contenting himself to hold her close, allowing her time to adjust to the rising crush of sensation, Miroku took his time kissing her, letting her clutch him to her as though she feared she would die if she let go. Soothed by the gentle crackle of the fire, bathed in the warmth of the heated air, the idea of wearing wet clothing was secondary to the burning flames of sentiment.

“Miroku,” she mumbled as his lips trailed along her jaw, to her ear, nibbling, sucking, gently caressing, directly contradicting the ragged breathing, the stifled sighs.

“Don’t talk, Sango . . . just feel.”

She smiled vaguely as she nodded. Eyes closed as velvet lips brushed over her skin, light kisses combined with the delicate circling of his hands on her back, on her cheek . . . a yearning to be closer, a need to feel more as a blossoming weakness, a steady languor, seeped over her, tugged at her, lured her to demand more as she pulled him closer, body to body. Separated by clothing, it just wasn’t enough.

As though he realized what she wanted, his hands tugged at her shirt, pulled it out of her skirt, pushed it off her shoulders until it fell to the floor in a whisper. Deft fingers—shaking but sure—worked the ties of her skirt, and it followed the blouse. Her skin felt as though it was crackling in the silent room. The stillness was broken only by the soft hiss of the fire, the occasional rumble of thunder. Miroku let go of her and stepped back.

Sango slowly opened her eyes to see him struggling with his own clothing. A few ragged breaths were necessary to steady her raging emotions, and she stepped forward, gently pushing aside his hands though hers were trembling nearly as badly as his. He watched as she worked the ties, the hidden fastenings, loosening him from the binding of his clothes as he tugged them off and cast them aside.

His chest seemed broader, his back wider, more sinewy muscle seemed to draw her touch, to beckon her closer. Forgetting to be timid, she stared, mesmerized, as he stepped toward her, every ripple of his body defined, starkly contrasted, in the warm firelight. Standing over her, his gaze fierce, virile, his eyes raked over her without hesitation, his hands coming up to free her from the bindings that covered her breasts. “Kami, woman,” he rasped out as the strip of cloth fell away. Instinctively her arms rose to cover her breasts. He stopped her with a gentle touch. “Don’t, Sango . . . don’t hide from me.” Dropping to his knees before her, he gathered her close, pulled her against him, pressing kisses onto her stomach as her head fell back, as she unleashed a moan she couldn’t contain.

She stumbled against him as he licked at her belly button, unable to support her own weight under the barrage on her senses. Miroku caught her, laid her down on the pallet, kissed her neck, her collarbone, explored the flesh she’d so carefully hidden from him for far too long.

Long, sensitive fingers closed over her breast, drawing her up off the pallet with a strangled gasp of pleasure. His explorations shot surges of heat and of light straight to her belly or maybe a little lower. The lure of his touch was like dropping dry grass on a fire. Her body felt as though it was burning up under his hands. Unable to lay still, unable to endure such torment as her stomach quaked, as her entire being trembled from somewhere deep inside, she touched him, too, hands on his shoulders, over his chest, along the hidden clefts, the rise and fall of flesh.

Dragging his finger along the elastic of her panties—the one modern concession Sango had willingly allowed Kagome to talk her into—Miroku shivered as he muscles jumped under his touch. As though her body wanted to consume him, the surges of muscle under her silky flesh teased him, taunted him, and he complied with her wishes.

The torture of his hands on her drew a whimper from deep inside. Her body called to his, begged his for whatever soothing he could offer. He ignored her silent pleas, hands tracing the arc of her hip, the hollow of her stomach, the rise of her ribcage, the swell of her breasts . . . . She gasped for breath, willed him to understand, mouth opening and closing though no sound would come. She felt as though she was going to die, on the edge of something magical yet something that she had no idea how to attain.

His mouth closed over the aching peak of her breast. With a sharp gasp, a rending cry, she arched against him, her body racked with shivers as something inside her exploded. A million stars of light, shooting through the heavens swirling around the pain that grew more demanding, an aching emptiness that sought a fulfillment that she yearned for even as his tongue flicked over her nipple time and again. His moan vibrated through her, shook her to her core, forced a gush of white hot passion as his relentless perusal continued. Her limbs liquefied by his command, her body racked with frustrated desire, something so savage and yet so gentle seemed to flow from her to him and back again. The currents that shot through her all seemed to settle into a throbbing need, an ache that magnified as he slowly removed her panties.

Eyes squeezed closed, concentrating on the pulsing ache that wouldn’t wane, she faintly heard as he removed the last of his clothing, whimpered as she felt so alone, so vulnerable, without him there beside her. When he joined her again, she gasped as he raised her knees, held her legs, waited for her to open her eyes.

She finally did, eyelids heavy, as though they fought to remain unaware. “Houshi-sama?” she whispered, her eyes dark, veiled in the washes of lingering desire.

He leaned forward, letting go of her legs as he recaptured her breasts in his hands. “Never doubt how much I love you, Sango . . . .”

“No,” she agreed, eyes drifting closed as his lips fell on hers again. The last thing she had seen was the blackness of his violet gaze, as though the very emotions that coursed through her had caused him to feel the same things. Coaxing her with gentle caresses, guiding her with sounds of muffled approval, Sango did some exploring of her own, her tongue hesitating yet probing as he captured it between his lips, her action bringing out moans and shivers. She felt his body probing hers, as though seeking the sort of relief she wanted, too. If her mind didn’t know what she was after, her body did, and she lifted her hips against him. It was all the invitation he needed.

Unable to control the quaking of her body as he sought her out, she cried out in the silent hut as he melded them together, a welcomed invasion as he entered her. The slight resistance of her untried body gave in to his gentle persuasion and an encompassing heat broke through her in wave after wave of a wholly different kind of repletion. As though she hadn’t really ever been complete before him, Miroku’s body fit into her as though he had been made for her. He shuddered in her arms, throbbed in her core, muttered nonsense into her ear that she couldn’t comprehend. Another ache started to build with a ferocity that left her breathless, a burning need for something more than what they already shared.

When he started to ease out of her, Sango reacted on instinct alone. Raising her hips against his, recapturing the part of him that had been taken away, he gasped as her body insisted. “Sango,” he pleaded, his voice barely a whisper in the darkness, “kami, Sango, I can’t . . . .”

Guiding her movements to compliment his, a perfect dance of heat and flesh, bathed in the firelight and blessed by the holy union they shared, Sango reveled in every pulse, every nuance. Resting on his elbows, staring at her face, Sango felt his breath, hot and labored, as it caressed her skin. He rose and fell in her like the tide, ebbed and flowed like water lapping against the shore. But the seas grew rougher, a little more wanton, and she held to him, whispering his name, as he goaded her further with his body, with his love.

His breathing came in smothered gasps as hers constricted in her throat. Breathing was secondary to the wealth of emotion, to the ebb of passion. The primal desire that spurred them both closer and closer to the cusp of something both frightening and magical became a tangible goal, a gleaming star, an attainable dream. Bodies twined, balancing on the edge of death and rebirth, a beautiful give and take, a powerful surge of emotions, and with a final shove, they tumbled off the apex, plummeting into the depths of the valley only to soar so high above on the gentle wings of a joy so great, so encompassing, that the rest of the world faded.

Held against the powerful beat of Miroku’s heart, Sango tried to smile but felt the wash of tears that rose, spilling over as she clung to him. Smoothing her hair, he whispered to her, incoherent words in a quiet tone, soothing the edges of her frayed memory. Somehow, in one beautiful moment, Miroku had healed the scars in her heart and had given her something far greater in return. The careful shroud of self-preservation she’d worn for so long fell away, leaving her naked and exposed . . . and cosseted in the warmth of his love.

“I’m sorry, Sango,” he said softly when her sobs had diminished. Kissing her forehead, stroking her cheek, he sighed.

“Sorry?” she echoed, sniffling as she leaned up to wipe away the lingering tears. “Why?”

He shrugged with a deep frown, a sadness in his gaze. “I didn’t mean to . . . I wanted you to . . . I’m sorry.”

She shook her head as a slow understanding dawned on her. “No, houshi-sama . . . don’t be sorry . . . why should you be?”

A deep blush as he looked away, he sighed.   “I must have done something wrong, to have made you cry like that . . . I’m sorry.”

Sango gasped and gently turned his face to kiss him. “That wasn’t why I was crying,” she assured him. “I just realized how much you’ve given me . . . That’s all . . . .”

A cautious hope lit his gaze as he searched her face for any signs of untruth. “Sango . . . I’d give you the world, if I could. You must know that.”

She nodded and kissed him again. “I know . . . but what you just gave me . . . I think that’s enough.”

He chuckled and leaned up on his elbow, pinning Sango against the pallet. “Think again, my goddess. The night is still young.”

She blushed but smiled. “Oh?”

He didn’t answer as he leaned down to kiss her.

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

InuYasha yawned and pulled the blankets over his head, trying to block out the incessant thumping on the wall beside the doorway. Kagome reached over and shoved his shoulder.   “Mmph,” he mumbled.

She sighed and tried to roll over. “You. You’re closer.”

“Go the fuck away,” he unburied his head long enough to yell.

The bamboo blind opened as Miroku and Sango strolled into the hut. InuYasha growled and buried his head again as Kagome sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “Hey, you two. You look . . . rested . . . why _are_ you so rested?” she asked suspiciously.

Sango knelt down by the glowing coals of the central fire as Miroku set about rekindling the burning embers. “No reason,” Miroku remarked innocently. Sango blushed.

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted from under his blankets. “Remind me, wench, I want to make a real door.”

Kagome shoved at him again but giggled. “Ignore him. He’s just being a grouch.”

“Anything we can help with?” Miroku asked as he poked the fire.

“Sure,” InuYasha growled, “get out. That’d be a great help.”

Kagome crawled over the surly hanyou and got up as Shippou bounded through the doorway and leapt into her arms. “Kagome!” he greeted with an exuberant hug.

“Shippou! Were you good for Kaede?”

Shippou dropped to the floor and hugged Sango. “Yep. I even fetched water for her this morning,” he remarked happily. Skittering over to the blanket-covered pile of hanyou, Shippou hopped onto InuYasha’s back and plopped down. “Why’s he still sleeping?”

“I’m not,” InuYasha snarled. “Though it ain’t from lack of trying.”

“Are you sick?” Shippou demanded since normally InuYasha was the first up and around in the morning.

“Oi, wench! Get him off me, will you?”

“Stop grumbling, InuYasha,” Kagome retorted though she did retrieve Shippou before the grumpy hanyou could grab for the kit.

“Shippou, why don’t you go get some water for us, then?” InuYasha asked, still buried in his blankets.

Shippou hopped down and grabbed the bucket that was almost as big as he was. “All right, Father. Be right back!” With that, the happy kitsune darted back outside.

Kagome measured out loose tea leaves into the coffee pot and set it aside to wait for Shippou to return with the water. Miroku and Sango seemed lost as they stared into each other’s eyes. InuYasha suddenly sat up again, a strange frown engulfing his features as he stared incredulously at Kagome and raised a clawed finger to point at the door. “Did . . . did he just call me . . . _Father?_ ”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Kami_** _: God/Gods_. . .
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from InuYasha_** :  
>  _Seriously . . . did that runt call me ‘Father’_???


	79. Breaking the News

Kagome stared at InuYasha, her face registering both her shock as well as her confirmation that he had, indeed, heard the kitsune correctly. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t noticed it, herself, but in any case, Shippou had called InuYasha ‘Father’, and judging from the look on the hanyou’s face, she wasn’t so sure that InuYasha had any idea just what to do with that bit of information.

Miroku shook his head slowly, trying very hard not to laugh outright. Sango didn’t look like she knew what to say. With an expression that was caught somewhere between shock and complete amusement, the youkai exterminator busied herself in putting a pot of water on to boil to make breakfast, instead.

“I think he did,” Kagome finally ventured to say. “But why?”

InuYasha snorted, cheeks blossoming in a lovely shade of ‘fire-rat-haori’-red. “Keh. I’ll find out why . . . and I’ll put a stop to it, too.”

“InuYasha, you know he only wants a family,” Miroku cut in quickly. “Perhaps he simply thought to ask you to be his father in that way.”

“Keh! Tell me something I don’t know, monk,” InuYasha shot back as he stumbled out of the blankets and rummaged around for his undershirt. “That’s not the point, anyway.”

“Then what is?” Miroku challenged with a marked frown.

“Keh! I’d better never hear him call me ‘ _Father’_ , ever again.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “That’s what’s bothering you? It’s not freaking you out in the least that he thinks of you as his father now?”

InuYasha paused as he tucked in his shirts long enough to glance at Kagome. “Why should it? I’m like his old man . . . just not officially. I feed him, teach him, discipline him . . . . Anyway, stop saying that word, will you?”

“Why does it bother you?” Miroku asked.

Squatting down between Sango and Miroku, InuYasha shrugged. “I dunno . . . I guess it’s just because Sesshoumaru used to rub it in so much, that Mother and I . . . . I just don’t like it, that’s all.”

Kagome knelt down behind InuYasha and gave him a little hug. “Well, I think Shippou made an excellent decision. You’re the closest to a—” cutting herself short when she intercepted InuYasha’s glower, Kagome grinned, “—papa that Shippou has.”

Shippou backed into the hut with the sloshing bucket, grunting under the strain of dragging the weight along as he tried his hardest not to spill it on the floor. Kagome moved to intercept the bucket and the struggling kitsune. InuYasha uttered a low growl to stop her, shaking his head slowly as she started toward the child. Kagome frowned but stepped back, allowing Shippou to drag the bucket closer to her. “There!” Shippou said with a relieved sigh as he leaned back against the wooden pail. “I did it, myself!” he announced proudly.

“Thank you, Shippou,” Kagome remarked with a bright smile as she ruffled his hair then set about filling the coffee pot.

“Shippou,” InuYasha remarked as he pushed himself to his feet, cautiously eyeing the kitsune. “Come with me.”

“Am I in trouble?” Shippou asked as InuYasha picked him up and dumped him on his shoulder. The hanyou grabbed Tetsusaiga as he pushed out of the hut, stalking out of the hut and down the path toward the river.

“We’ll see,” InuYasha answered.

Shippou fidgeted but remained silent. InuYasha stopped beside the river and set the kitsune on the ground. Sinking down across from him, he shook his head and sighed, his countenance carefully blank, his tone wary. “Tell me, what, _exactly_ , you said as you left to get that water.”

Shippou frowned in concentration, as though he didn’t rightly recall. InuYasha knew better. Tapping his chin thoughtfully as he screwed up his face, the kitsune slowly repeated the words he’d said, omitting one very crucial one in the recitation, “All right. Be right back!”

“And the word you left out?” InuYasha asked slowly.

Shippou flushed slightly and wrinkled his face even more as he tried to think of the one word InuYasha was fishing for. “Umm . . . ‘in a minute’?”

“Keh.”

“ _’I’ll_ ’ be right back?”

“Nuh uh.”

“. . . ‘InuYasha’?”

“Nope.”

Shippou flopped down and stared at his feet as his face colored a little more. “Would you believe it if I said I can’t remember?”

“Shippou—”

“Okay, okay! I said . . . ‘Father’,” he mumbled.

InuYasha nodded slowly without taking his eyes off the kitsune once. “Is there a reason you said that?”

Hesitantly, Shippou reached into his shirt collar and pulled out the gleaming fang. InuYasha frowned as he stared at it. Dangling from a silvery strand, he recognized the fang immediately . . . and he recognized the hazy pink aura that wafted around it, too. “Sesshoumaru asked me what I wished for,” Shippou said quietly, still unable to meet InuYasha’s gaze. “I told him I wanted to be a family . . . with you and Kagome.”

InuYasha reached out and touched the fang, turning it over in his fingers. Unable to hide his incredulity, he stared at the fang with obvious amazement. “ _Sesshoumaru_ did this? _My_ brother? _That_ Sesshoumaru?”

Shippou nodded. “In his kitchen. He said that I should tell you whenever I wanted . . . are you . . . are you mad at me? If you don’t want me—”

Wincing as the kitsune’s eyes filled with tears, InuYasha snorted, dropping the fang and settling back with his arms folded together. “Keh, knock that off. No pup . . . er . . . _kit_ of mine is gonna be bawling all the time, you got that, runt? And no more of that ‘Father’ crap, either.”

Shippou sniffled and finally dared to peek up at InuYasha. Catching the small smile on the hanyou’s face, Shippou dared to smile, too. “What should I call you then?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Don’t rightfully care, runt . . . just not ‘father’, all right?”

Shippou frowned thoughtfully again. “Well, I called my real father, ‘Father’ . . . .”

“Give it some thought, Shippou. You can call me the same as you have been, if you want.”

“Baka?”

InuYasha reached over to flick the kitsune’s nose. Shippou hurriedly covered it with his paws. “Just joking!” he squeaked.

InuYasha finally cracked a smile. “Come on, runt. I think you need to talk to Kagome . . . oh, and one more thing.” Shippou stopped and stared up at his adoptive father. “You start talking like me, and I’ll tweak you.”

“Okay,” he agreed easily enough. Shippou got up and ran along beside InuYasha, obviously happy about the turn of events. InuYasha watched as the kitsune ran back into the hut. Somehow, he didn’t figure Kagome would have a problem with it. In fact, he had a feeling that she’d be pleased. She’d thought of Shippou as her own for long enough. He might as well _be_ theirs.

The only troubling thing was, why would Sesshoumaru do something so . . . _nice?_ InuYasha had to admit, he was having a lot more difficulty of late, trying to figure out his brother—at least the Sesshoumaru that existed in Kagome’s time. The one he better knew was easy to figure out. All he had to do was draw Tetsusaiga and whack at him a few times. Future-Sesshoumaru, though . . . . Everything he said was a riddle, and everything he did contradicted his self-professed hatred of InuYasha. It made no sense. Then again, when had Sesshoumaru ever _really_ made sense?

Kagome and Shippou stepped outside. The kitsune was hopping up and down very happily, assuring his new ‘mother’ that he would be on his very best behavior for them. InuYasha stifled a snort. ‘ _Fat fucking chance_ ,’ he thought with a grin, ‘ _that kit is_ always _in trouble_.’

“InuYasha?” Kagome asked quietly as Shippou darted back inside. “Is this all right with you?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Too late now, ain’t it?” Her eyes took on a more guarded expression, and he relented with a little chuckle. “Didn’t I just say that he might as well be ours? Damn, wench, clean out your ears.”

She finally grinned and hugged him. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay with it, that’s all.”

“Keh. It won’t make that big a difference, will it? I mean, we already do take care of him.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

He stared at her, a slight frown drawing his eyebrows together. “What for?”

She shrugged. “For being you.

“Keh,” he snorted, feeling the burn of embarrassment filtering into his face yet again. Catching the look in Kagome’s eyes, InuYasha swallowed hard. She gazed at him as if he was the only man on earth. “Kagome?”

She leaned up closer, brushing her lips over his cheek. “Think you could make some time later for us?”

Her contentment wrapped around him like a warm blanket. She smiled at him, letting her head fall against his shoulder. He breathed in the scent of her hair, savored the welcoming aura surrounding her. InuYasha wrapped his arms around her waist, as much to keep himself standing as it was to hug her back. “What did you have in mind?” he asked quietly, hoping it was the same thing he did.

Last night had been torturous, having Kagome so near yet being unable to so much as touch her. The full moon nights were worse than any other. As though his youkai blood was closer to the surface, he had spent the entire time digging his claws into the pallet, trying his best to ignore the call of her body to his. It hadn’t been until the sun rose this morning that he had been able to sleep at all, and then, of course, the lecher had to come in . . . .

She blushed, eyes sparkling. “I thought maybe the three of us could go on a picnic or something?”

He sighed and shook his head. That just wasn’t what he was thinking, at all . . . .

“Papa!” Shippou yelled as he darted back outside. “Will you take me hunting later?”

InuYasha made a face and shot Kagome an apologetic glance when she poked him in the ribs for his efforts. “This is going to take some getting used to, wench,” he remarked. She giggled.

The smell of a strange youkai came to him on the breeze. “InuYasha, what—?” Kagome asked as he suddenly straightened his back, turning his head slightly and twitching his ears like little radars.

“Youkai,” he answered, absently grabbing Kagome by the hand and dragging her up onto his back as Shippou hopped up onto his shoulder. InuYasha turned to follow the smell. “Oi! Miroku! Get off your lazy ass! It’s time to play!” he hollered as he lit out at a dash in the direction of the scent. ‘ _This one’s mine!_ ’

Bounding toward the smell, he drew up short when he reached the fields beside the river and bent down to let Kagome and Shippou slide off his back. Miroku and Sango, probably on Kirara, were close behind, but he wasn’t waiting.

Spotting the lumbering ox youkai as he pawed the ground, ravaging the fledgling crops, InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga. “I’ll give you one chance to leave,” he called out, brandishing the sword before him as he stepped in front of the ox. The ox youkai snorted, blowing clouds of dirt into the air in response to InuYasha’s warning. It stomped its huge hooves, trampling more of the crops into the ground, daring InuYasha to come and get it. “All right. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Charging forward, Tetsusaiga slung over his shoulder, InuYasha let out a loud yell. The ox youkai swung his head, trying to warn him off before it attacked. InuYasha was blown back by a mighty gust from the beast’s nostrils. He landed on his feet and pushed off the ground, straight for the mighty youkai. The ox pawed the ground, readying to charge InuYasha.

A strange smile broke over the hanyou’s face. ‘ _Come_ _on, you clumsy bastard. Let’s see what you’ve got!_ ’ Cleaving the sword in a wide arc, Tetsusaiga exploded in a flash of sapphire, the energy wave that shot out engulfed the field and the youkai. With a howling shriek, the ox youkai exploded in a flash of light and dissolved in the breeze.

InuYasha landed and sheathed Tetsusaiga with a derisive snort. “Keh! Too easy.”

“Wow, InuYasha . . . I’m impressed,” Kagome mumbled, her voice a little breathless.

With an almost embarrassed grin, InuYasha turned at the sound of his mate’s voice. Standing not far behind with Shippou in her arms, it struck him how perfect the whole scene was. She looked so happy, almost . . . worshipful? He frowned and shook his head. ‘ _Keh! That can’t be right! Why would she look at me like that, anyway?_ ’ Gazing back at her, though, InuYasha was sure that he’d read her expression correctly. ‘ _She’s staring at me like she really believes I can do anything_ . . . .’

Sango and Miroku ran up behind, and InuYasha didn’t miss the monk’s grumbling complaints that InuYasha hadn’t bothered to save any for them.

Shippou hopped out of Kagome’s arms and ran over to Sango and Miroku. “Did you see that?” Shippou hollered. “Did you see? InuYasha—err, Papa . . . ! He took out that youkai in one swing!”

InuYasha blinked in surprise as Kagome ran to him, leaning up to kiss his cheek as he stared in surprise as Shippou jumped around, re-enacting the pitiful battle to show the newlyweds how InuYasha had taken care of the ox youkai. He shook his head. Shippou made it seem like the ox youkai was tougher than Naraku.

“He’s so proud of you,” Kagome murmured as she hugged him.

“Keh.”

She giggled. “So am I.”

He could feel his face redden as she squeezed him tighter. “Keh.”

“You just couldn’t wait for the rest of us, could you?” Miroku called.

“Oi! It’s not my fault you’re a slow, pathetic human . . . not to mention all the _noise_ the two of you made last night . . . it’s a miracle _anyone_ got any sleep.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped, clapping her hand over her mouth.

Sango flushed and buried her face in Miroku’s chest as the monk grinned from ear to ear. “We’ll see who gets the last laugh,” Miroku taunted. “ _I_ don’t have to go tell my mother-in-law that I’ve suddenly got a son . . . .”

InuYasha’s good mood deflated at that reminder. Shooting Kagome a questioning glance, he was anything but reassured by her half-hearted smile.

‘ _Keh_ ,’ InuYasha thought as he sighed and stalked away, toward the forest—and toward the well. ‘ _If Kagome’s mother didn’t hate me before, she will now ._ . . .’

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Grandma!”

InuYasha was just quick enough to intercept the bags of groceries as Shippou launched himself at Mrs. Higurashi as she approached the shrine doors. “Shippou! I think I bought some pocky for you!” The kitsune positively beamed as he ran ahead to hold open the door. “What brings you all back? I wasn’t expecting you for another few days!”

Kagome sighed and smiled. “Well, we sort of needed to talk to you, Mama.”

InuYasha snorted as he headed to the kitchen with the bags.

“You sound serious, Kagome.”

Kagome winced. “Well . . . .”

Mrs. Higurashi suddenly turned very serious. “Kagome? Tell me you didn’t . . . .”

“Not exactly,” she hedged, knowing where her mother was going. “Let’s go in the kitchen, and I’ll explain.”

Mrs. Higurashi didn’t look appeased by Kagome’s elusive answer but she followed her daughter into the kitchen. InuYasha dug a box of pocky out of a bag and handed it to Shippou. “Beat it, runt,” he ordered.

“All right, Papa!” Shippou ran off with the treat as Kagome winced at the kitsune’s choice of words.

“Did I hear him correctly?” Mrs. Higurashi asked in a carefully neutral tone.

“We adopted him,” Kagome blurted out and rushed on to say, “but we didn’t really know we were doing it. InuYasha’s half-brother, Sesshoumaru sort of did it, and we didn’t know about it . . . . I’m sorry, Mama, I know we promised you . . . but Shippou needs us, too. He’s not a problem. We’ve already been taking care of him for so long, it’s normal for us . . . . We just wanted to tell you.”

“Goodness, Kagome,” Mrs. Higurashi remarked with a wry smile. “That was certainly a mouthful . . . . InuYasha? What do you think of all this?”

InuYasha shrugged, staring at the floor as his cheeks reddened slightly under Mrs. Higurashi’s scrutiny. “He’s ours. I won’t abandon him.”

“Of course not,” Mrs. Higurashi said with a sigh. Shaking her head slightly, she offered Kagome a small smile. “My main concern with children, Kagome, was just, with your schooling, that a pregnancy on top of that would just be a little too much, and once the baby arrived, it would simply be more difficult to take care of all your responsibilities. Shippou has been a very large part of your life for a very long time. I certainly don’t think it’s a bad thing, that you’ve decided to take real responsibility for him, especially if, as you say, you didn’t really have a choice in it. I think he’s absolutely adorable—of course, as his grandmother, I am a little biased.”

InuYasha blinked in surprise. “You mean, you’re not mad at me?”

Mrs. Higurashi laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as though the action would stave off her amusement. “Oh, no, InuYasha! Of course not!”

Kagome sat back, visibly relieved. “We just found out this morning, actually. Shippou called InuYasha—”

“Keh! Don’t say it, wench.”

Kagome shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Anyway, he’s been calling InuYasha ‘Papa’ ever since.”

Mrs. Higurashi’s expression clouded a little and she shook her head. “What, exactly, does this adoption entail? I know that it was apparently a youkai adoption, but what does that mean, as far as your rights and responsibilities?”

Kagome turned to look at InuYasha, who blushed a little more and twitched his ears. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I didn’t know it could be done.”

Mrs. Higurashi stood up to pour herself a cup of tea, offering some to Kagome and InuYasha, who both declined. “You said your brother was the one who sanctioned this? Maybe you should ask him?”

Kagome could tell from the look on InuYasha’s face that he really didn’t want to ask Sesshoumaru any such thing. He also looked like he could see Mrs. Higurashi’s reasoning, though, and in the end, he sighed. “Keh. Like that bas—” he cut himself off with a slight flush when Mrs. Higurashi cleared her throat loudly. “—Sesshoumaru will give me any answers.”

“And what about schooling? Shippou is old enough to go to school . . . .”

Kagome shook her head. “I don’t think he knows how to read or write. He’d be so far behind the other kids, at least to start with . . . .”

“Keh. The runt can read and write, some.”

Kagome blinked in surprise. “He can?”

Surprised at his flush, Kagome stared in silent wonder as InuYasha shrugged. “Yeah . . . I’ve been teaching him, some. Is there a problem with that?”

Shaking her head quickly, Kagome schooled her features and tried not to laugh at the mulish expression on his face. “No . . . I just didn’t realize you had.”

InuYasha clicked his claws against the countertop, looking as thought he was trying not to be offended. “Well, I have,” he replied stiffly. “But school? Keh! Bad enough I have to keep bringing you back time and again for your stupid tests. Now you want I should do the same with Shippou? Youkai aren’t meant to be cooped up in a classroom, wench.”

“Oh, please! You make it sound like I’m trying to put him in a zoo!”

“Keh!” InuYasha frowned. “What’s a ‘zoo’?”

Kagome waved her hand. “Never mind, I’ll explain it later.”

Mrs. Higurashi smiled gently. “Surely you want what’s best for him, right? Education is very important, especially if you’re going to remain in this time for any extended periods. Besides, I’d be happy to keep him here during school . . . .”

Kagome shot InuYasha a questioning glance. He was staring at his claws again but finally heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Come on, Kagome . . . might as well see what that bas— _brother_ of mine has to say for himself. He goes out of his way to make my life a living, breathing hell, and I get growled at for calling him a bas—”

“InuYasha! Are you saying that adopting Shippou will make your life a—” Kagome cut in, exasperation heavy in her tone as he reverted to his infamous pout.

“Did I say that?” he grumbled. “But he could have told us, don’t you think?”

“I’ll make a special dinner to celebrate,” Mrs. Higurashi offered happily, effectively ending the altercation before it had a chance to escalate further. “You will be staying overnight, won’t you?”

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue that, too. In the end, he sighed and nodded curtly. Kagome winced. So much was happening so fast, it was hard not to be a little overwhelmed, herself. She could only imagine what InuYasha must be feeling . . . .

‘ _Maybe_ ,’ she thought with a slight grin as InuYasha stomped off to locate their new son, ‘ _I should do something really special for him . . . but what?_ ’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Shippou_** :  
>  _Well, I’d say he took that rather well_. . .


	80. Admission of Guilt

The tai-youkai sat in the thickly cushioned chair idly drumming his claws against the supple leather as he stared from InuYasha to Kagome and back again. The miko kept glancing over toward the window that overlooked the sprawling back yard of the estate, checking on her new son as the kitsune kicked a soccer ball around with Jaken.

Leikizu swept into the room with a tray of beverages. Setting it down on the highly polished cherry wood coffee table, the drinks went ignored as the heavy silence grew thicker and thicker.

“It pleases you not, to have the kitsune as your own son?” Sesshoumaru finally asked, breaking the stifling silence with the softly uttered question.

InuYasha narrowed his gaze as he glared at his brother. “Don’t be stupid, bastard. I just want to know why you did it. You never do anything for the hell of it. Why this?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged and slowly cracked his knuckles. “Let’s say I felt for the child and leave it at that.”

“Let’s not,” InuYasha growled, “because you and I both know that ain’t the truth.”

“Do you have so little faith in your brother, InuYasha? Truly, I’m wounded.”

“Sesshoumaru thought the child needed to have the benefit of the protection of a real family, InuYasha. Surely you can understand this,” Leikizu cut in, pinning her mate with a baleful look.

InuYasha nodded slowly. “Okay, I can accept that, so why the secrecy? Why demand my fang and not tell me what the hell you wanted it for? Why hide all this? Wouldn’t it be easier to protect him if I knew he was mine?”

Sesshoumaru stared at InuYasha, blinking lazily, idly, as though InuYasha weren’t really there even as he stared deliberately at his brother. “So you know nothing of the parental bonding? You should sense without knowing that your pup is in danger. That would have been enough, wouldn’t’ it?”

“So that’s why we knew it,” Kagome remarked in a hushed whisper as she turned her gaze toward the window once more.

“The longer Shippou keeps the necklace on, the stronger the bond will become. By the time he reaches maturity, he should be able to remove the necklace without disturbing the family circle,” Leikizu explained since Sesshoumaru seemed to be finished talking. “Sesshoumaru has warned Shippou to leave it on, but you may wish to reiterate the importance of it, yourselves.”

“But I still don’t get why you did it,” InuYasha growled, leaning forward as he glared at his brother. “What’s it in it for you?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head slowly. “Be not a fool, InuYasha. You have absolutely nothing that I would want.”

Nibori slipped into the room and sat down beside Leikizu. Nodding his silent greeting, Kagome was surprised when InuYasha nodded back.

Sesshoumaru nodded at Nibori. Nibori seemed to understand the unspoken question as he stood and retrieved a manila envelope off the occasional table near the fireplace. He stared at the packet for a moment before returning to hand it to Sesshoumaru.

The tai-youkai deliberately took his time shuffling through the documents without removing them from the envelope before extending it to Kagome.

InuYasha growled slightly but let her take it. With a questioning look, she pulled out the papers inside and frowned in confusion. “What’s all this?”

Sesshoumaru made a deliberate show of rolling his eyes and flicking his wrist to stare at the heavy Rolex timepiece. “That is everything you require for that worthless baka and your kit to exist in this day and age.”

Kagome stared at the birth certificate that proclaimed him Inotaishou InuYasha, and another one that announced the birth of Inotaishou Shippou. The mother space was filled as Inotaishou Kagome Higurashi. She made a face. Her mother might not like that at all . . . . She did, after all, want them to have a traditional wedding as soon as Kagome finished school.

InuYasha peeked over her shoulder at the documents but didn’t bother reading them thoroughly. “Keh. It don’t matter. We ain’t staying in this time.”

Nibori cleared his throat, drawing his uncle’s attention. “Pardon my saying, but Shippou does show interest in attending school, so you might well be in need of those.”

InuYasha just snorted again in answer.

“Another thing that you should know,” Leikizu spoke up. “In some cases—rarely but it does happen—the child may start to take on some of the adoptive parents’ traits, if those traits are strong enough.”

“What does that mean?” InuYasha asked, shaking his head in confusion.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “I swear, InuYasha, your complete lack of intelligence astound me. It means that the kitsune could assimilate some of your—heaven forbid—or the miko’s powers, strengths.”

InuYasha narrowed his gaze at his brother then snorted indelicately. “You mean the runt could be more like me?”

 _‘Now, why does he sound almost happy about that?_ ’ Kagome wondered as suspicion grew. ‘ _Unless . . . he wouldn’t mind Shippou being more like him . . . ?_ ’

A sudden and vastly disturbing image of Shippou running all around Musashi with a huge sword, bellowing “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” flashed through her head, and Kagome stifled a groan. The same thing must have occurred to InuYasha because he suddenly coughed to hide a grin and a chuckle of his own.

“It’s more of a technicality than anything,” Leikizu explained. “Though you’ve watched over him for this long, you now have the added advantage of knowing if he is in danger, and that may come in handy.”

InuYasha shot off the sofa and paced the floor, nervous energy carrying from one end of the room to the other. “What are you up to, Sesshoumaru?” he finally demanded, stopping by the windows and glancing outside at the kitsune.

“I have no ulterior motives,” Sesshoumaru remarked with a lazy flick of his wrist.

“And I don’t breathe.” InuYasha stalked back over, planting himself next to Kagome though he refused to sit down again. “What was all that crap the other night? About you fixing _my_ mistakes? What the hell do you know that you’re not telling me?”

Sesshoumaru stood and crossed the floor. Staring out the window at the overcast sky, Kagome thought she could discern a slight frown on his features, a near sadness as he saw nothing. What was it he remembered? Why did she have a feeling it was something that they might not want to know? A wretched sense of foreboding spilled over her, leaving her cold. What was Sesshoumaru hiding from them?

InuYasha sensed it, too. Stalking over to Sesshoumaru, he refused to back down as he challenged his brother in quiet contention. “What do you know that you’re not telling me?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head, refusing to meet InuYasha’s steady gaze. “Lei, take the miko,” he stated quietly. “InuYasha and I . . . need to speak in private.”

“I’ll go see if Jaken needs a break,” Nibori offered as he headed out of the room. Kagome hung back for a moment. Something told her that she ought to hear this, too.

In the end, InuYasha nodded at her, silently telling her to go. Kagome did but couldn’t help staring back at him. ‘ _Will he tell me what Sesshoumaru says? What is it that Sesshoumaru doesn’t want to say in front of me?_ ’

“So tell me, Kagome, how is your training progressing?” Leikizu asked in a falsely bright tone as the two women headed for the back doors and the garden beyond.

“What’s going on?” Kagome asked quietly. “I have the feeling that there’s something that no one is willing to say.”

Leikizu’s sighed and sank down in one of the wrought iron patio chairs, motioning for Kagome to do the same. “I don’t think it’s so much that Sesshoumaru is unwilling to say what his motives are. I simply think that he would rather interfere as little as possible.”

Kagome shook her head slowly, grasping for an understanding that she couldn’t attain. “It doesn’t make sense. Sure, Sesshoumaru saved Shippou. It just seems a little odd, though. Why would he care if we adopted him or not, and why does it always seem like there’s something he wants to say but can’t?”

Leikizu’s gaze flicked away, a slow smile turning the corners of her lips as she stared at her son and Shippou as the two kicked the soccer ball back and forth. “It’s not my story to tell, Kagome. I’m sorry.”

Kagome nodded with a frown. As much as she wanted answers of her own, she could understand Leikizu’s reluctance to divulge Sesshoumaru’s secrets, whatever they were. The lingering doubt over the things that always seemed to be left unsaid tugged at her as she watched Shippou’s antics. The kitsune was having a great time playing with Nibori. Smiling despite her bleak thoughts, Kagome nodded toward the inu-youkai. “Nibori really isn’t anything like Sesshoumaru,” she remarked without taking her eyes off the two.

“No, he’s not. Sesshoumaru’s always said that he never wanted Nibori to be like him.”

Kagome’s gaze shifted to the female youkai. The look on her face was vaguely sad as she watched her son and new nephew. “Sesshoumaru’s not terrible,” Kagome remarked, carefully measuring her words.

Leikizu smiled then chuckled. “Not terrible . . . that’s true. Sesshoumaru has a good heart. He just doesn’t always know how to show it.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“What is it that you didn’t want to say in front of Kagome?” InuYasha asked as Leikizu pulled the door closed behind them.

Sesshoumaru stared out the window, remembering the sky—it had looked the same that day . . . overcast, gray, hinting at rain that never fell. That day, as he’d realized what his pride had cost him . . . the day that Sesshoumaru had promised himself that everything would be different, even if he had to defy destiny to make sure it was so . . . The day he realized just what the price of his own greed has cost . . . .

It had begun with the kitsune, the weakest of them. How could he have known then that it was the beginning of the end? That the vicious cycle would continue, that the intrinsic spiral of decline would bring them all to their knees?

Blinking rapidly as he snapped out of his memories, Sesshoumaru let his gaze rake over his younger brother’s face. “There was a time I despised you, InuYasha, did you know? I loathed everything you were, everything you represented.”

Stubbornly refusing to meet Sesshoumaru’s gaze, InuYasha stared out the window, a scowl engulfing his features. “Keh . . . you still do.”

“Would I have saved your kitsune if I did? Would I have trifled with you at all?”

InuYasha didn’t blink as he shifting his gaze to stare at his brother, his countenance a mixture of stubborn pride and arrogant resolve. “I don’t fucking need your help. I never have.”

Sesshoumaru’s smile was vague, tainted by the bitterness of memories, by the unrelenting irony behind InuYasha’s obdurate claims. “Think what you will, InuYasha. Just remember that sometimes the answers you seek are closer than you’d believe. All you really have to do is ask.”

Sesshoumaru wasn’t surprised to see his brother rest his hand on Tetsusaiga’s hilt. It was always his answer, wasn’t it? Fight now, think later. It was the creed by which the hanyou had always lived. “Enough of your riddles! Damn, why do you do that? Why can’t you ever just say something without having to hide every little thing in your fucking games?”

Sesshoumaru leaned against the window frame, a cynical smile toying with his lips. Silvery hair that matched the overcast skies, his enigmatic expression was enough to set InuYasha’s teeth grinding. “Find Myouga. Ask him the secrets of the well.”

“The secrets of the well?” InuYasha echoed, his frown deepening. “What do you know about the well?”

Sesshoumaru’s gaze was penetrating, thorough, boring into InuYasha’s skull as though he were trying to read his mind. “I know enough, InuYasha. I know more than you credit me. Mark me. If you do not stop looking to others to answer your own inadequacies then you shall fail . . . to the detriment of yourself as well as all those you care about.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“InuYasha?”

Peeking down through the boughs of Goshinboku, InuYasha caught sight of Kagome and Shippou. She held a large wicker basket while the kit carried Baka under one arm and a new soccer ball—a present from Sesshoumaru, the dirty bastard—under the other. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Shielding her eyes from the harsh midday sun, Kagome smiled almost shyly up at him. “We were going to go on a picnic . . . and we were hoping you’d come, too.”

“Please, Father?”

“Oi!” InuYasha growled, dropping out of the tree and chasing after the kitsune who darted through the courtyard and hopped over the gate to disappear into the forest. He vaulted the gate, too, and leaped after the cackling kitsune. In the distance, he could hear Kagome closing the gate behind her, and he slowed down just enough to keep an eye on her as he followed Shippou. “Get back here, runt! I told you what would happen if you called me that again!”

“InuYasha!” Kagome called out as she turned her head from side to side, trying to spot him through the thick foliage.

InuYasha grinned. ‘ _Now . . . I could chase the kit and tweak him a good one . . . or I could sneak up on sneaky wench . . . ._ ’ He considered his options a moment then rolled his eyes and snorted. ‘ _Keh! What the hell kind of choice is that? Only one of them will kiss me . . . ._ ’

Creeping around in a wide circle through the dense underbrush, InuYasha waited to pounce.

“InuYasha? Where did he go?” Kagome wandered a few more steps and stopped to look around again. “Shippou? InuYasha?” She sighed and shook her head. “Figures . . . they both left me.”

“Keh! You don’t really believe that, do you?” InuYasha mumbled as he grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him as she gasped.

“You scared the life out of me!” she complained.

“I’d rather scare the pants off you,” he countered, nipping at her ear.

She shuddered. “St—stop that . . . Shippou—”

“Thinks I’m going to tweak him. He’ll be gone awhile.”

“Still,” she complained as her scent shifted, spiked, soared. “This isn’t . . . fair . . .” she pointed out as fangs grazed over the soft flesh of her neck.

“Tell me you don’t want me,” he argued, pausing his assault on her senses long enough to speak before dropping his mouth back to her throat again.

“I . . . don’t,” she maintained stubbornly, eyes fluttering closed.

“Don’t do a damn bit of good to lie when I can smell you, wench.”

“That’s not really fair . . . I can’t smell you,” she remarked, her voice veiled in the huskiness that bespoke her true feelings.

“You don’t need to smell me,” he retorted, pulling her back flush against him.

She gasped as the full understanding of what he meant pressed against her. “That’s really, _really_ unfair,” she complained as she leaned against him, drawing a groan from the hanyou.

“What are you guys doing?” Shippou demanded, suspicion lighting the depths of his jewel-like eyes as he stared at them.

Kagome gasped and straightened up suddenly, her head bumping hard against InuYasha’s chin. “Damn!” he growled, unsure if he was more irritated by the interruption, the reminder that they weren’t alone, or the sharp pain that rattled through him as his teeth smashed together from the impact with Kagome’s head.

“There you are!” Kagome said brightly as she hurried over to the kitsune. “We were just getting ready to look for you.”

“Keh!”

Shippou frowned, shaking his head slowly. “I could go play with Baka if you two are busy,” he offered.

“Go on—”

“InuYasha!”

“Damn it.”

‘ _Thwarted by your own kit_ ,’ he fumed. Stomping toward them, he snatched the basket out of Kagome’s slack hand and led the way into the forest. ‘ _Sneaky wench owes me for this_ . . . .’

“Nibori said I’ll be as strong as you one day, InuYasha,” Shippou piped up.

InuYasha shot the kit a sidelong glance and snorted. “Keh. What happened to you calling me ‘papa’?”

Shippou shrugged. “Sorry . . . I forgot.” He hopped along beside InuYasha then ran ahead, stopping in front of a huge tree. “Watch! I’ve been practicing!” Shippou hollered. He turned to face the tree, setting down his toys. “ _Sankon-tetsusou!_ ” he hollered, scratching his tiny claws against the tree trunk in a rather pathetic rendition of the Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer attack.

InuYasha’s eyes widened as he choked back a laugh. Shippou retrieved his toys and turned back with a self-satisfied smile. “Nice form,” InuYasha remarked. “Keep working on it.” The kitsune beamed happily.

“He really idolizes you,” Kagome said softly, slipping her hand into his as Shippou bounded ahead.

InuYasha felt his face warm. “Keh.” Kagome giggled. “Oi! Runt! Don’t run off too far!”

Shippou waved over his shoulder and slowed down a little before stopping at another tree to practice his Sankon-tetsusou on it. InuYasha sighed and winced. “He’s got a long way to go.”

Kagome giggled again. “Well, he is still young.”

“He’ll be fine,” InuYasha assured her. “He’s just got small hands. If they’d grow, he could do some real damage.”

“Spoken like a true father.” He made a face. She caught the look and stopped. “Tell me why you hate being called that so much,” she prodded.

He stopped, too, and shrugged then sighed. “Sesshoumaru, you know? He’s always made such a point to make sure I knew that it’s my fault that my old man died. Well, mine and my mother’s, like we wanted him to die . . . . It’s stupid,” he grumbled as he started walking again.

Kagome caught his arm. “It’s not stupid . . . but it’s not right, either. Your father died to protect your mother and you. He chose to do that. It wasn’t your fault any more than it was your mother’s.”

InuYasha stared over her head at the young kit who was still trying to bring down a sapling with his weak version of the Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer. He smiled despite himself. “Besides, I’m not really ‘father’ material. That’s more Sesshoumaru.”

“How so?”

His grin widened. “Because he’s so uptight you’d have to shove Tetsusaiga up his ass to loosen him up.”

She shook her head but grinned. “Shippou thinks you’re ‘father’ material.”

“Keh. Shippou’s just happy to have you as his mother.” This time when he started walking again Kagome fell in step beside him. “I can live with ‘papa’, though . . . that’s not so bad.”

“So . . . .”

When she trailed off, InuYasha spared her a glance. “Out with it.”

She sighed. “Are you going to tell me what you and Sesshoumaru talked about after you kicked me out?”

“Keh. We didn’t kick you out.”

“Okay . . . after he _asked_ me to leave?”

InuYasha frowned. “He said that I should ask Myouga about the well.”

Kagome shook her head, her face mirroring his thoughtful frown. “What would Myouga know about it?”

“You tell me.” For some reason, he didn’t want to tell her about Sesshoumaru’s parting remarks.   Those words made him uneasy, as though there were something he ought to have realized already, and yet he couldn’t quite get a grip on it, either.

‘ _If you do not stop looking to others to answer your own inadequacies then you shall fail . . . to the detriment of yourself as well as all those you care about_.’

What had he meant?

They continued on to the pond near the tree where he’d first claimed Kagome as his mate. Kagome dug a red and white checked cloth out of the basket and spread it on the ground. InuYasha sat down next to her as they watched Shippou kick the ball all over the clearing. Kagome busied herself by pulling items out of the basket and spreading them on the cloth.

InuYasha couldn’t help but remember his own childhood, playing with the red ball in the castle courtyard near the gardens and of how the nobles took his ball and wouldn’t let him have it back. His mother had always been there, back then . . . . She always hugged him, and when he had asked her what a half-breed was, she had cried . . . .

Deliberately pushing those memories away, InuYasha steeled his resolve. His own family . . . they’d never have to suffer that sort of treatment . . . would they? the villagers left him alone, whether it was because of their acceptance of Kagome, their respect for his protection of the village, itself, or because they had witnessed what he could do, first hand, he didn’t know, and he didn’t care so long as his own children would never have to endure the teasing, the taunts that he had to.

“Shippou! Come eat!” Kagome called as she handed InuYasha a plastic container and chopsticks. The kit dropped the ball as he ran over and plopped down between Kagome and InuYasha. “Can we find Myouga here?” Kagome asked as she picked at her food.

“I don’t think so,” InuYasha commented with a frown. “I think he might be dead now. Totosai mentioned that before.”

“No, he’s not,” Shippou piped up as he swallowed a huge bite of sausage. “He was at Sesshoumaru’s earlier.”

“He was?” InuYasha echoed. “You saw him?”

Shippou nodded. “Yeah . . . he was trying to suck Nibori’s blood.   Nibori flattened him a good one.”

Kagome stared at her food, deep in thought. “That’s weird. I wonder why he’s never bothered to come around then . . . .”

InuYasha frowned. “Yeah . . . .” He set his food aside and shook his head. It was all getting stranger and stranger. Between Sesshoumaru and his damn riddles and Myouga’s uncharacteristic absence, it seemed as though there was something really important that InuYasha just didn’t understand . . . . ‘ _What the hell am I missing?_ ’

“Now that we’re a family,” Shippou piped up as he reached over and stabbed a sausage out of InuYasha’s container, “when do I get a brother or sister? I’d rather have a brother, though, if I can choose . . . Do I get to?”

Kagome choked on the rice ball she was eating. InuYasha’s face was as red as hers as he reached over to thump her on the back. Shippou stared at them both as if he thought they’d lost their minds.

“That’s not . . . not for awhile,” InuYasha ground out since Kagome obviously couldn’t. Digging in the basket for a bottle of water as she continued to sputter InuYasha wished that he could reach over and wallop the kit’s head . . . .

“How does it work?” Shippou went on. “I know Miroku always liked to start by rubbing women’s rears, but that never really seemed to work for him—”

“Shippou,” Kagome gasped out after drinking nearly half of her bottle of water—and choking again when the curious kitsune continued his line of questioning. “InuYasha will explain all that to you when you’re older.”

“I will?” he rasped out, suddenly wanting a bottle of water, himself, since his throat had suddenly gone bone dry.

She narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to challenge her on this. “Yes, InuYasha, you will . . . _later_.”

“ _Much_ later,” he mumbled, cheeks reddening even more, “and stay the hell away from Miroku. He’ll give you bad ideas.”

Shippou frowned and started to ask something else. InuYasha hurriedly shoved his last sausage into the kit’s overzealous mouth.

Kagome suddenly started giggling as she handed InuYasha a bottle of water then dug one out for Shippou.

“What’s so funny, wench?” he asked suspiciously as Shippou got up and ran off to play again.

Winding down, Kagome leaned over and kissed InuYasha’s cheek. “I’m just wondering if you’re just going to keep shoving food in Shippou’s mouth every time he asks a question.”

He donned his pouting face and snorted. “If it works . . .”

She dissolved in laughter again. InuYasha stared pointedly at her until she calmed down again. “Can you imagine how fat he’ll be then?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes but chuckled. “So I’ll teach him how to roll over his enemies instead of using his claws.”

Kagome finally sighed and leaned against InuYasha’s shoulder with a contented smile. “This is nice, isn’t it?”

“What?”

She shrugged. “Just sitting here, like this . . . not having to do anything or be anywhere for once.”

He snorted but pulled her closer, resting his cheek on her hair as they watched Shippou chase the soccer ball. “Yeah,” he agreed softly, “it is.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Inotaishou_** _  
> Sort of a mix of Inu no Taisho, this is both InuYasha and Sesshoumaru’s last name in the modern world, in honor of their father_. 
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from Miroku:  
> _** _Stay away from me? Me? What did I do? InuYasha, that just hurts_.


	81. InuYahsa's Journal

Kagome set her calculus book aside with a groan and rolled her head back. Studying for the two hours hadn’t agreed with her at all, but InuYasha had been in the main house talking to Souta—‘ _Man-Talk’_ , Souta had called it. InuYasha had ducked in long enough to tell her that Shippou had pleaded to stay in the main house with ‘Uncle Souta’ before he headed off to bathe.

Rolling off the bed to put the textbook on her desk, Kagome stared at the journal peeking out from under InuYasha’s haori. He’d taken it off before heading for the bathroom, and she bit her lip as she tried to convince herself that it would be wrong to read his diary without asking.

With a sigh, she forced herself away from the allure of the book and ran down the short hallway to the bathroom door. She knocked on the door, hoping he could hear her over the steady drone of running water. “InuYasha? You almost finished?”

“Keh! I just got in here, wench!” he hollered back.

Kagome made a face as she turned and returned to the bedroom. Catching herself staring at the book once more, she shook her head and whirled around. ‘ _What are you thinking? That’s his! You gave it to him, and he’s already made it clear that you can’t read it!_ ’

With a nod to reinforce her resolve not to peek in the journal, she pulled out the nightgown and robe she’d gotten from Leikizu. ‘ _Something special_ ,’ she thought with a slight smile as she traced over InuYasha’s seal and wondered just what he’d think of the ensemble. ‘ _Well, there’s only one way to find out_ . . . .’

It didn’t take her long to change into the satin nightgown. Feeling a little too exposed in the flimsy little confection, she tugged at the spaghetti strapped nightie then donned the matching silk robe. It wasn’t much but it did offer her a semblance of coverage . . . . She put on the slippers for good measure and stepped over to retrieve her brush from her desk drawer when the journal caught her eye once more. Before she could talk herself out of it, she snatched it up. ‘ _If I hurry, I can sneak a peek and put it back before he gets out of the bathroom_ . . . .’

With shaking fingers, she hurriedly opened the cover and turned back the first page . . . and gasped. ‘ _Oi, sneaky wench! Caught you!_ ’

“InuYasha!” she mumbled, cheeks flaming as she stared at the bold words—his first entry.

After glancing over her shoulder through the doorway to make sure he was still in the bathroom, she turned the page.

‘ _So this is a journal. Kagome says I should write down my feelings in here. I’m not too sure what that means. How do you put on paper, everything you feel? It doesn’t really seem possible, to me. I think I’m too used to being alone. There isn’t a need to talk when you’re alone. You don’t have to explain things, and you don’t have to worry that no one will understand. I was alone for so long that it seems unnatural to have anyone want to be around me. Miroku, Sango, Shippou . . . . They say they’re my friends, and I guess they are. Friends? And Kagome. Kagome is my friend, but she’s more than that. I’ve tried to tell her. I’ve tried to make her understand. Somehow words are useless to me, and I can’t voice the things I want her to know. I try to show her, but that doesn’t work, either. Still, it’s as though she really does understand, so maybe I’m not so worthless, after all_ . . . .’

“Worthless?” Kagome whispered, running her fingertips lightly over his written words as she frowned at that one word. He couldn’t still think that, could he? She sighed. Maybe he wasn’t a poet, and maybe he couldn’t say whatever it was he wanted to say out loud. It didn’t matter to her. She knew his heart, and his heart was a beautiful thing.

“I knew you’d never be able to leave that alone.”

Kagome jumped and screamed as she dropped the journal and spun around to face InuYasha, who was lounging casually in the doorway wearing nothing but a light blue towel tucked carelessly around his hips. Eyes lit with the familiar awareness of rising obsession, he stared at her, daring her to deny him. The air caught in her throat as she struggled to breathe. Knees trembling, skin suddenly aflame, the rush of desire that crashed into her was immediate, consuming. A low growl rumbled from him: a warning? A promise? A sultry demand as his eyelids drooped, half-closed, drunk on love. ‘ _How can he do that to me, with a simple look?_ ’

Something else burgeoned in his gaze, something that tugged at her heart. Gentle, tender, misplaced in the wash of giddy unfulfilled ferocity; he stumbled forward, dropped to his knees as he wrapped his arms around her hips, nuzzling his cheek against her stomach.

“InuYasha?” she asked quietly, stroking his hair, fondling his ears. “What’s wrong?’

He shook his head, tightened his arms around her, pulled her closer against him, quaking as he held onto her, afraid to let go? “Nothing’s wrong,” he mumbled, voice harsh, desperation thick as he clung to her. “I just. . . .” he answered, tightening his hold on her again as a shiver ran down his spine. “I just want to hold you.”

Blinking back a wash of tears that gathered in her eyes, InuYasha’s quiet entreaty tugged at her. He never asked her for much, and then when he did, he amazed her. Contenting herself with rubbing his ears, his rumble broke the stillness of the room, and he sighed.   His breath was trapped between the satin and her skin, and Kagome moaned softly.

Slowly standing up again, InuYasha stepped back, glowing eyes overflowing, molten, thick gold that waxed and waned, burning with such fervor that Kagome couldn’t look away. “Tell me what you want, Kagome,” he demanded, his voice a husky caress.

“You,” she answered simply, unblinking, unrelenting, staring back at him with a concentration that matched his own.

Lifting her as though she were weightless, he stepped over to the bed and set her on her knees. She leaned forward to touch him. He pushed her hands back, gentle yet firm. She moaned, head rolling to the side, as he pushed her robe off her shoulders, claws dragging over her flushed skin. Running his claws along the angles of her jaw, down the contour of her throat, teasing her collarbones with whispering touches, with softest strokes, she reacted to his body with a surge of heat, a shift in her fragrance, a deliberate flick of a match as a fire ignited somewhere between them. The invisible flames burned them both, scorching skin, searing flesh, as he pushed the thin straps off her shoulders, letting the gown fall to pool around her.

Leaning forward, one knee on the bed, InuYasha pulled her close, lifted her head with a cradling hand. As though she had lost her very will, she relinquished her body to him, the whispers of unspoken promises in his embrace. Her lips collapsed under his, welcoming him with soft sighs, with total acceptance as he slowly rediscovered every nuance of her mouth with his tongue.

Her body was dissolving in a current of ardor inspired by his tender touches, his soft explorations. Deliberately taking his time as he kissed her thoroughly, touched every part of her while holding her so close that she could feel his heart beat, so close that she could feel him press against her through the barrier of her panties.

He was her rock, the steadying force she held to, the light in the darkness of the unknown. “Touch me, Kagome,” he rasped out. Desperate and undeniable, her eyes darkened to a shimmering pool of blackest night, flecks of light rising like the sparks off an inferno, his demand urgent, the lure of her touch too strong.

Her hands were shaking as she brought them up, brushed her fingertips over the silken skin of his chest, his shoulders. His head fell back as she wrenched a growl from somewhere deep within. The sound emboldened her, goaded her. Slowing her investigation as his body trembled under her touch, she kneaded the muscle around his nipples, marveling at her power over him as she lowered her head to flick her tongue over his flesh. His hands gripped her shoulders, holding her as tightly as he dared, withstanding her assault as he wondered how much he could take before he died in her arms.

Squelching the devastating need to take her with all the passion she inspired, InuYasha strained against her, willing his body into compliance. He gasped as her hands delved lower, fingers running along the divide between the towel and his skin, caressing him as the cloth fell away. Teasing her way along his hipbones, along his hips, along his thighs, he uttered a low whine. The trembling increased, his body quaking against hers as Kagome’s lips lingered in the shallow vale over his heart.

“Kagome,” he growled, voice raw, pleading.   He wanted her to stop but needed her to continue. A paradox in motion, the beginning and end of his world, the meeting of light and darkness, she soared above him but reached down to support him, taking her with him as she uncovered his secrets. Her joy became his hell, his own private torture as she took her time in her languid expedition. Wanting her so badly that he ached, throbbed, felt as though he was trapped in the bowels of a volcano, he stubbornly held to the knowledge that Kagome would be worth the effort.

Her spirit could tame him and drive him to the brink of his control at the same time. As though the heavens decided to make one being so perfect, so beautiful, so untouchable, and as though the heavens gave her a body and a soul, a heart and a will as free as the wind, as flowing as the sea . . . . They named her Kagome, and they entrusted her to him. InuYasha let go of her arms, wrapped her into his embrace, brought his lips down over hers, promised her everything as she gave him a reason for being. Lost in her touch, reeling in her kiss, surrounded by her scent, the only thing he could understand was that she was his, and that forever wouldn’t be nearly long enough.

Pressing her down onto the bed, he leaned over her, kissing her as he took care to remove her panties without tearing them. Hungry mouth consuming her body, hands idly roaming her flesh, he taunted her as she had done to him, taking his time as she arched and writhed, as she whimpered and moaned. She bucked her hips against him, uttered sounds of unrequited need. He adored her with his attention, unwilling to satiate both of their ambitions until he’d kissed every inch of her. Strangled cries—almost sobs—escaped her lips as her frustration spiked. Hunger built upon craving, quivering gave way to a searing fever of longing. Her scent was nearly driving him mad, the scent that called to him, drew him in.

Liquid passion surrounded his fingers as he touched her. With a ragged cry, she arched her back, her body tense, waiting. As though all of her passion centered on this one place, InuYasha dragged his mouth off her belly to stare at the place that scorched him. This part of her that was only his . . . he watched in fascination as she rocked her hips against his hand. Governed by instinct, driven by lust, willed by the lure of her body on his, drawn by her scent, so incredibly close, and his tongue darted out, captured her moisture, rubbed against her. She gasped, moaned, shuddered, melted. The taste of her cloaked his senses, precluded everything else as he claimed her in a wholly different way.

“Please,” she gasped out, hands tugging on fistfuls of silvery hair, “InuYasha . . . please . . .”

One last soft flick of his tongue, one last gentle kiss to soothe her, one last thrust of her hips against him, one last delicious tremor that shook her small body as he glided over her, he gave in to her entreaties. Resting between her shaking thighs, he leaned up on his elbows, smoothed her hair out of her face. “Kagome,” he whispered, “look at me.”

It took her a few moments to comply with his request. Eyes hazy, unfocused, she tried to smile at him as her lips trembled, as she struggled to breathe.   Entering her with calculated slowness, with aching patience that drew whimpers from her, she couldn’t keep her eyes open as the web of perception ensnared her. Her body captured him, a perfect heat, a perfect melding, a perfect soul. She shuddered around him, squeezed him tightly, held him closer than her own heart as she slanted her hips against him. Gentle persuasion as desperation grew, a crush of the tide, a call to his heart answered time and again with cautious abandon, and subtle persuasion. A spark, a flame, a slow, aching blaze that intensified, glowed brighter, burned hotter, enveloping them in the wicked constraints of passion unfulfilled.

Everything about her whispered to him. She was the completion of his soul, the salvation of his sprit, the gentle creature who brought him home, made him whole, and gave him hope that the world was worth being in. Her intrinsic belief, her fundamental trust, his reason for fighting, Kagome was his sacred jewel. Surrounding him in her beauty, bathing him in her light, the push and pull of the tender glide as he fought against his desire to merge them, holding out, holding on, waiting for her.

Pulsing around him, the beat of her heart edging him closer to the divide, the beautiful darkness that led to the light beckoned him. ‘ _Wait for . . . Kagome_ ,’ his soul whispered. He moaned as she kissed his cheeks, kissed his chin, kissed his lips. Her body sparked, burned, sang to him a siren’s song. Lost in the tide of her, he felt himself break free as she called out his name. A hoarse entreaty, the sound of her sobs, he cradled her close as he died just for her, only to be reborn in the wash of her tears.

Seconds ticked away, gauged by the small pink alarm clock. They flowed into minutes as InuYasha labored as he sought to remember how to breathe. Gradually the world stopped spinning, coherent thought returned, and he winced as he realized he was probably crushing Kagome under his weight. “Kagome?” he whispered, flopping onto his back, dragging her with him as she lay sprawled on his chest. “What’s wrong?”

She hiccupped and choked out a laugh. “Nothing,” she assured him, her breathing ragged, harsh. He stroked her hair, held her closer, a soft whine escaping him as she tried to stop crying. “Have you ever been close to something so amazing that you just wanted to cry? Not because it was bad, but because it was . . . .”

“Beautiful,” he finished when she faltered. ‘ _Like . . . you, Kagome . . ._ ’ Wrapping his arms around her and giving her a gentle squeeze, InuYasha smiled, blinking quickly as his eyes stung, burned. “Yeah,” he replied, kissing her forehead. “I have.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“I need you to do something for me.”

Myouga dragged his greedy stare away from the throbbing pulse in Sesshoumaru’s neck. As though the tai-youkai could sense the flea’s intent, he narrowed his gaze and raised his hand to swat the pest. Myouga hopped back, feigning righteous indignation at the idea that he would be trying to sneak a meal. “What is it you require, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

Knowing better than to trust the flea’s proclaimed innocence, Sesshoumaru grabbed him between two fingers and deposited him on the desk. “InuYasha will seek you out to ask you about the well. I would like your promise that you shall be careful in what you tell him. InuYasha might be thick-headed but he is not ignorant.”

Myouga nodded slowly, propping himself up against a magazine. Glancing over at the fireplace, he stared at the wooden box on the mantle. “It’s still empty?”

Sesshoumaru nodded once. “For now.”

“You say that as though you expect it to change.”

“I expect nothing.”

Shaking his head slowly, the flea youkai sighed. “Dangerous business, Sesshoumaru-sama. InuYasha-sama is not nearly as simple as he seems . . . and then there’s Kagome-sama, too . . . If InuYasha–sama doesn’t catch it, there’s a good chance she will.”

“Sometimes the truth is harder to see when you’re staring it in the face.”

Myouga sighed again. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Sesshoumaru nodded. “You must not fail, Myouga.”

Myouga bowed and hopped off the desk.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to keep this from them?”

Sesshoumaru glanced away from the empty wooden box to gaze at his mate as Leikizu sauntered over to him to perch on the edge of the desk beside him. “You know how impulsive he is. Think what he would do, if I told him the entire story.”

Leikizu’s dark magenta eyes swept over Sesshoumaru’s troubled expression. Holding out her hand, she clasped his hand tightly in hers. “You’ve been carrying the weight of it for five hundred years. Don’t you think it’s time to share the burden?”

He shook his head. “Soon enough.”

Leikizu smiled as Sesshoumaru tugged her into his lap. “It can’t be good for you. You hold it all inside so tightly . . . do you really fear what InuYasha would do? Or do you think that you’ll be perceived as less if you admit your mistakes?”

Golden eyes bored into hers, seeking answers to his own questions. “Would you think so?”

She smiled tenderly. “You know I wouldn’t. It’s time to stop hiding behind your excuses, Sesshoumaru. Tell them the story and let the chips fall where they may.”

A slight nod and a soft sigh were his answer. Shaking his head, he stared at his mate, five hundred years of recriminations still weighing on his mind, heavy, dense, disquieting. “Is what I’m doing wrong? Should I trifle with destiny?” he asked quietly.

Leikizu shook her head slowly. “No, my mate. The wrong was done before. You only seek to fix it now.”

A wan smile quirked the corners of Sesshoumaru’s mouth. “My mate is as wise as she is beautiful.”

“And my mate hides himself behind such a cold façade . . . You can’t hide from me, darling. You never could.”

She leaned in, brushing a kiss over his lips. He could sense something troubling her. He sighed. “It isn’t like you to hide things, Lei. What is it?”

Leikizu shrugged a little too casually. “I was just thinking . . .”

When she trailed off, he squeezed her, letting his forehead rest against her shoulder. “Out with it.”

She smiled. “I was thinking . . . the house is so empty . . .”

Sesshoumaru narrowed his gaze. “It’s because of that kitsune, isn’t it?”

“Some . . . not just because of Shippou.”

Sesshoumaru considered his wife’s unasked question. Raising an eyebrow, he chuckled. “What do you think Nibori would say?”

“Nibori thinks you should get off your ass and do it,” Nibori remarked, sticking his head into the study with a wide grin.

Leikizu frowned at her son’s language then laughed.

“I think you’ve been exposed to that ignorant brother of mine far too many times,” Sesshoumaru remarked but grinned slightly.

“As long as you realize big brothers don’t do diaper duty.” Nibori winked and ducked back out of the room.

“Meet me upstairs, Lei,” Sesshoumaru whispered in her ear. “We’ll see what we can do about this . . . .”

“Don’t be long,” she murmured as she kissed him again. Standing up, he let her hold onto his hand until the contact broke off as she moved away. She stopped in the doorway and smiled at him before turning and disappearing into the hallway.

Sesshoumaru waited until Leikizu breezed out of the room before he opened the bottom drawer on his desk to pull out the fireproof box that he kept inside. Pulling out the aged scroll, he stared at it, expression blank. Katosan’s words from so long ago came back to him, _‘It is for InuYasha-sama, should you choose to give it to him. He might find it of sovereign interest . . . eventually._ ’

Staring at the smudged seal—still intact, still preserved . . . The seal of the Inu no Taisho. Turning the scroll over in his hand, letting the seal rest against his fingertips, the tai-youkai frowned. ‘ _Father . . . what was so significant that you left it to InuYasha?_ ’

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

“Aren’t you sleepy?”

InuYasha cocked an eyebrow at Kagome. “Not especially. Why?”

She shrugged and blinked innocently. “No reason. I just thought you normally get tired after we . . . well, you just do.”

“What are you plotting?”

“Plotting? Nothing! Don’t you trust me, InuYasha?”

He shook his head. “Keh!”

Scrunching up her shoulders, Kagome muttered an indignant, “Hrmph!”

“So spit it out. What’re you up to, sneaky wench?”

“Nothing sneaky,” she assured him, rubbing the middle of his chest in a way that he enjoyed almost too much. “You know, _I_ trust _you_. Completely. Without question. Absolutely.”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh, and I trust you to try to peek at my journal.”

“Oh, come on! Why don’t you want me to read it? What did you write in it, anyway?”

InuYasha chuckled at her disgruntled tone. “I told you, you didn’t ask.”

She heaved a sigh. “And you’re saying that if I asked, you’d let me read it?”

InuYasha didn’t get a chance to answer. His stomach growled so loudly that Kagome giggled and scrambled off the bed. “Oi, wench! Get back here!”

“I will,” she agreed as she snatched up her robe, “after I make you something to eat. Ramen?”

As much as he would love to lie around with her in his arms, the prospect of ramen . . . . “All right,” he agreed, leaning up on his elbows to watch her hurry out of the room. He sat up with a sigh, dragging her nightgown from the foot of the bed and lifting it to his nose. He closed his eyes, letting her scent envelop him as a small smile broke over his face.

He got up, dropping the gown on the bed as he ambled out into the kitchen. She was facing away from him, putting the ramen in the microwave. Sneaking up behind her, he chuckled as she gasped when he slipped his arms around her. “Shouldn’t you be listening for danger at all times?” he mumbled as he kissed her temple.

“What danger?” she scoffed. “You’re the only person here other than me.”

“I’m dangerous,” he informed her, his tone a little offended. She giggled. “I _am_ ,” he insisted, letting go of her and crossing his arms over his chest.

“You are,” she agreed, “but you’re much more dangerous when you’re wearing clothes.”

He grinned. “You think so?”

Catching his meaning, she blushed but smiled, too. “Well, maybe.”

His smile faded as he stared at the emblem embroidered on her robe. Stepping closer, he reached out with his index finger, tracing over the stitching with his claw. “What’s this?” he finally asked. He knew what it was. He just wanted to know where she’d gotten it. “And why are you wearing the crest of that bastard brother of mine?”

Kagome didn’t look like she knew what he was talking about. Glancing down, her mouth widened into an ‘o’, and she shrugged. “That? It’s not Sesshoumaru’s crest. It’s—”

“Keh! I know what the hell it is, wench. It’s the seal of the Inu no Taisho—Sesshoumaru.”

She shook her head and stepped back since he had every intention of removing the offending garment with his claws to insure that she couldn’t ever wear it again. “It’s the mark of the Inu no Taisho—your father,” she hurriedly explained. “Actually, it’s your crest. Sesshoumaru’s is blue, and your father’s was white. This one’s yours, baka. Now put your claws away and let me finish your ramen.” That said, she turned her back on him to get his food out of the microwave oven.

InuYasha’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘ _I have a crest?_ ’ Shaking his head in wonder, he grabbed Kagome’s arm to turn her to face him again. She gasped as hot ramen broth sloshed out of the cup. It missed her hand and landed on the floor. She opened her mouth to grumble at him but noticed expression on his face. Rubbing the pad of his thumb over the crest he stared at the seal. ‘ _My crest?_ ’ “Who told you that was mine?”

She smiled. “Leikizu told me. She said you didn’t know. Do you think I’d wear it if it was Sesshoumaru’s?”

“Keh.” InuYasha flushed. ‘ _Of course she wouldn’t_.’ Choosing to ignore her question, he took the ramen from her hand and snorted again. “And you’re not allowed to call me ‘baka’, remember?”

“Yes, yes, because we’re mates, right?”

“Well, _yes_ ,” he insisted, his tone disgruntled at her obvious dismissal.

“All right, I’m sorry I had to point out that you were being a baka.”

He snorted at her backhanded apology. She pulled a dishcloth out of a drawer and wet it before wiping up the ramen mess as InuYasha dug out chopsticks and busied himself eating. “I’ll get that,” he mumbled through a mouthful of ramen.

She shot him a tolerant look. “It’s okay.”

He finished eating in silence and let her take his empty cup and utensils, picking up the manila envelope off the counter. He stared at it thoughtfully. “You think Shippou should go to school, too, don’t you?”

Kagome shrugged as she rinsed the cup and threw it away. “I don’t know. It would be good for him, but wouldn’t it be weird, for us to leave him here with Mama?”

“It wouldn’t be all the time, though, right?”

Sensing his upset over the idea of leaving Shippou at the shrine, Kagome sighed and shook her head, scrunching up her shoulders as she assured him, “We don’t have to decide anything now, do we?”

He smiled half-heartedly and dropped the envelope before taking Kagome’s hands and leading her back to the bedroom again. “Keh,” he remarked as he stretched out on the bed, pulling her into his arms as she snuggled against him. “I think it’s pretty obvious, what Sesshoumaru thinks—which makes me want to do the exact opposite, bastard that he is.”

“I don’t know, InuYasha. I think your brother now is different from the one you know in the past,” she mused, leaning up enough to rub his ears.

He leaned toward her more, allowing her easier access to his head. “Keh. I prefer the past one. At least I get to beat on him a little. This one is . . . .” InuYasha frowned. ‘ _Hiding something . . ._ .’

“I’m surprised you’re even considering leaving Shippou, then,” Kagome said dryly.

InuYasha sighed, ears flattening as an air of dejection stole over him. “I wouldn’t, but . . . Shippou wants to go, doesn’t he?”

Kagome sighed. “I think so.”

Idly tracing the insignia on her robe, InuYasha couldn’t help the surge of pride, the satisfaction of seeing Kagome—his mate—sporting his crest. Her body trembled under his fingertip as her scent shifted again, and he grinned. “I like being able to smell you,” he remarked, tracing claw spilling off the embroidery to drag against the fine silk robe.

“That’s a really unfair advantage,” she pointed out, her tone airy, hushed.

He sighed, tilting her chin up, staring into her eyes as he pulled her in for a kiss. “So . . . you tired, wench?”

She smiled, her eyes dazed. “No . . . not at all . . .”

In one fluid movement, he pinned her against the mattress. Her giggle turned into a sigh as his lips dropped to her neck. ‘ _InuYasha, five—sneaky wench, one_.’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Kagome :  
> _** _InuYasha, we need to talk about your score keeping… I know I’m closer than **that**_...


	82. Needle in the Haystack

InuYasha sat up in Goshinboku staring at the unbroken forest surrounding him. Kagome and he had returned earlier, and she was spending ‘girl time’ with Sango, or so she claimed. With a sigh, InuYasha tried to push away the worry that tugged at him. They’d left Shippou with Kagome’s mother so that she could start getting him ready for school. Since he was behind other children his own age, Mrs. Higurashi had suggested hiring someone to give the kit a quick course to catch him up with the others before the fall term started. Kagome had promised InuYasha that they could go get Shippou in a week, once he had his assignments lined up and everything had been arranged. InuYasha still didn’t like it.

Still, he had to admit that what really bothered him the most were Sesshoumaru’s cryptic words: ‘ _Find Myouga. Ask him the secrets of the well_.’

“Keh!” he snorted. ‘ _I have no idea where to find that little coward! It could take me forever! Damn! He likes Totosai, though. Could he be there?_ ’

“InuYasha? Ah, there you are!”

Peeking down at Miroku standing at the base of the God Tree, InuYasha dropped down, landing next to the ex-monk. “What?”

Miroku made a face at the hanyou’s surly tone. “Kagome was wondering where you were, so I told her I’d check.”

Narrowing his gaze suspiciously, InuYasha frowned. “Why’d you really come out here?”

“Is it that obvious?”

InuYasha shrugged as he headed back toward the village. Miroku fell in step beside him. “Only to anyone who knows you. Spit it out already.”

To InuYasha’s surprise, Miroku flushed. “I found . . . something, and I’m not certain what it meant.”

Eyeing the monk-turned-exterminator with a suspicious scowl, InuYasha couldn’t help but think that he might not really want to know what Miroku was talking about . . . “What was it?” he finally forced himself to ask since Miroku was actually blushing just a little.

Miroku shook his head. “That’s just it. I’m not sure what it is, though I have a good guess . . . anyway, I’m not certain if Sango _wanted_ me to find it or if I just found it, and she didn’t have any intention of showing me.”

InuYasha shook his head, confused by Miroku’s odd confession. “What the hell are you talking about, Miroku?”

Miroku blushed a little more. “The box said ‘Body Condiments’ . . .”

InuYasha frowned. “Sounds weird to me.”

Miroku nodded. “I thought so, too . . .”

With a shrug, InuYasha lifted his eyebrows as he folded his arms together under his sleeves. “So why don’t you just ask her>?”

Miroku’s eyes flared wide as he turned his incredulous gaze on the hanyou. “You’re not serious! What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh, Sango, I just _happened_ to be looking in your things and just _happened_ to see the box of Body Condiments . . . ‘.   InuYasha, have you ever been thumped with Hiraikotsu?”

InuYasha nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

The monk grimaced. “Then you know _exactly_ why I’m not asking her.”

Stopping suddenly, he crossed his arms over his chest and pinned Miroku with a suspicious look. “Just where _did_ you find them, lecher?”

Miroku frowned, scuffling his feet along the dirt path. “. . . In her trunk.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Then it’s a safe bet she had no intention of showing you at all.”

With a heavy sigh, Miroku nodded. “I suppose . . . I was sort of hoping she did want to try them out. There was an instructional booklet . . .” he mumbled, digging into his armor. “Want to see it?”

Trying to keep himself from blushing, InuYasha snorted in response. “Keh! No.”

Miroku grinned. “Ah, is that ‘Monk-in-Pain’ I see before me?”

“It will be,” InuYasha promised as he sped up, leaving a laughing Miroku in his wake.

‘ _Once a pervert, always a pervert_ ,’ InuYasha thought, his face twisting into a cynical sneer as he neared the edge of the village. Lifting his head, he sniffed, trying to catch a whiff of Kagome. Her scent was vaguely discernible. Bounding off to follow her scent, he wondered how much effort he’d have to put into luring Kagome into disappearing with him for awhile. ‘ _Hell! I’m getting almost as bad as Miroku!_ ’ Shaking his head, InuYasha sighed but grinned as he tracked her down to their hut.

“Oi, wench!” he called as he pushed the bamboo curtain aside. “Where are you?”

Kagome peeked out of the small storeroom that they’d decided to use as a bedroom. Unfortunately she hadn’t had time to clean the room out before, and it was still full of dirt and debris from the building of the hut. Dressed in a tank top and very short shorts, she was covered with dust from her head to her feet. Face smudged with grime and hair sprinkled with enough dust to make her hair look gray under the bandanna she had tied over her head, he couldn’t remember her ever looking better to him. “I’m cleaning up the mess back here. It’s filthy. Why are you yelling like that?”

“I thought you were spending time with Sango,” he challenged, ignoring her question.

Her smile was tired when she grinned at him. “I did. Then I thought I should get after this so we have a more private place, just for us.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic. With a smile of his own, he hunkered down beside her and blinked innocently at her. “So . . . just for us?” She nodded as she bent over again, dragging the small scrub brush she had used for her fingernails across the floor. “Keh. That’ll take you all day,” he grumbled, waving his hand at the little brush she used.

She shook her head, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand as she tried to keep from sneezing. “I have to do it,” she remarked. “There’s an inch of grime on the floor.”

For some reason, he didn’t like seeing her scrubbing like that. As though he thought the task was somehow demeaning her, he reached over and snatched the brush out of her hand. She sat back and shot him a quizzical look. “We’ve got to discuss this jealousy issue of yours,” she remarked dryly.

“Keh! It has nothing to do with that,” he grumbled, feeling his cheeks redden under her scrutiny. “We’ve got to go find Myouga, remember? We’re going to see Totosai.”

Kagome shrugged. “Do you think he’ll be there?”

With a careless shrug, InuYasha wrinkled his nose. “I have no idea where he is.” Ears drooping just a little, he shook he head and snorted. “I swear, if Sesshoumaru is sending me on some sort of pointless search, I’ll—”

“Shove Tetsusaiga where the sun doesn’t shine, I know,” she cut in. “You’ve got to admit, sometimes Myouga does know what he’s talking about. We aren’t leaving today, are we? I mean, it’s already after noon. If we wait then we’ll have all day to get there.”

InuYasha frowned as he watched Kagome drag the broom across the floor since he’d taken the brush from her. It didn’t make sense to him. If Myouga knew something about the well, why hadn’t he told him before? Why would he have waited so long, and how would he know anything about it, in the first place? He sighed, frustration gnawing at his stomach with a dull ache. ‘ _Damn Sesshoumaru . . . what the fuck isn’t he saying?_ ’

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

‘ _That scent . . ._ ’

Katosan stopped, lifting his chin as he surveyed the area with a marked frown. An enigmatic smile, a brightening of his golden eyes as he caught the smell once more and followed it. ‘ _Weak . . . nearly destroyed . . . doubtless the work of InuYasha-sama’s miko. Hmm_ . . .’

The dank, damp cave offended his senses. The overwhelming stench of the pitiful creature unnerved him. Staring at the once proud lynx was a strange thing. She was almost pitiable, almost pathetic. ‘ _She is everything I despise . . . and yet I feel . . . drawn to her . . ._ ’

Her low moan, her weakened gasp as her eyes fluttered open was so different from the brash youkai he had come to know. “Kato . . . san? Is that you?”

Kneeling beside her, he nodded slowly. “Ayamakita . . . did you get your claws clipped?”

She hissed at him, the sound missing much of its threat since she was too weak to so much as lift her head. “Did you come here to mock me, Katosan? If that’s your intent, then I wish you’d leave.”

He growled low in his throat. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Aya. You and I both know you’d as soon die than show such pathetic weakness.”

“Pathetic, Katosan? Leave me alone.”

“Have it your way. You’ll die here. You’re already dying. The miko’s grown stronger . . . Tell me. What did you do to exacerbate your dire predicament?” She didn’t answer. “I’m willing to wager that this wasn’t in retaliation for throwing yourself at him the first time . . . the miko is far too kind to carry a grudge.”

Ayamakita closed her eyes. “Go to hell, Katosan. I don’t want you here.”

He stood and turned to go. The needling sight of her stopped him, the sadness that surrounded the dying youkai. If he left her alone . . .

Before he could talk himself out of it, he lifted her despite her weakened protests and set off toward the northwest.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Come on, InuYasha! Just a few minutes?”

Folding his arms together in the sleeves of his haori, the hanyou snorted and turned his face away in abject defiance. “Keh! I told you! I ain’t doing it.”

“You know you want to.”

“I’ll pass.”

“For me?”

“Keh.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Just this once won’t hurt you.”

“ _No_.”

“I’ll never ask you to do it again, I promise!”

“ _Fuck_ , no.”

She sighed. “You’re being a spoiled sport.”

“Wench—”

“But—”

“Will you shut up if I do it?” he growled.

She grinned. “Yes.”

“Two minutes.”

“Ten.”

“Five.”

“Okay.”

Staring at her for a very long moment, InuYasha shook his head and snorted. “Can’t believe I have to do this. I swear, wench, you just love seeing me act like an ass . . .” he grumbled.

Kagome giggled as she dug into her backpack and dragged out the bright blue Frisbee. InuYasha rolled his eyes as he waited. The only reason she wanted to play was because, more often than not, he’d end up catching the stupid flying disk with his mouth, which she thought was hilarious.

“We’re wasting time, you know,” he pointed out as she stretched her arms in preparation to throw.

“Totosai’s still alive in five hundred years. He’ll still be there if we’re ten minutes later.”

“ _Five_ , sneaky wench,” he reminded her. She laughed and let the Frisbee fly.

He caught it easily and whipped it back at her. She had to leap to catch it, making her blouse rise up and exposing a nice peek at her stomach. He whined as she threw the Frisbee back again.

She giggled as he leaped off the ground to intercept the disk. Landing on his feet with the Frisbee in his hand, InuYasha suddenly stopped and turned, an overwhelming uneasiness assailing him.

Kagome ran over to him. “InuYasha?”

He glanced at her. “Come on,” he said, pulling her onto his back.

“You felt it, too, then?”

“Yeah,” he answered, swiping up her bag as he lit out at a dead run back toward the village—back toward the well.

“It doesn’t feel like Shippou’s in _danger_ ,” Kagome mused.

InuYasha shook his head. “Not danger, no,” he agreed. ‘ _But what? More like the kit was . . . upset?_ ’ “Hold on, Kagome,” he told her as he picked up speed.

Kagome’s grip on his haori tightened, and she leaned in closer to him. “Hurry up!”

“Keh! What do you think? I’m jogging here?” he shot back as the forest flashed past them in a blur.

“I _know_ you can run faster,” she argued.

“You want to do the running?”

“No!”

“Then shut up and let me do this!”

They made it back to the village in half the time it had taken them to nearly reach Totosai. Miroku called out to them as they sped past. Kagome had enough time to holler, “Shippou!” over her shoulder before she and InuYasha disappeared into the forest, heading for the well.

He didn’t slow down at all as he sprinted out of the trees and into the clearing, didn’t pause as he lunged forward into the hole. Kagome didn’t bother getting off his back as they fell through the time slip. As soon as his feet hit the ground, InuYasha leaped out of the well, not stopping until he had nearly barreled straight into the doors of the shrine.

“Shippou!” Kagome hollered as InuYasha threw open the door. InuYasha grabbed her hand and dragged her straight through the house into the kitchen. The kitsune was sitting on Mrs. Higurashi’s lap, sniffling and trying to eat pocky at the same time.

Mrs. Higurashi offered the two an apologetic smile over Shippou’s head. “Souta took him to the zoo,” she explained.

Kagome winced. “Oh, Souta . . . why did he do that?”

“It was awful,” Shippou mumbled, struggling off Mrs. Higurashi’s lap and scampering over to Kagome. “They had them in cages, and . . . there were other foxes . . .”

Kagome shot InuYasha a helpless glance. It must have been obvious from his expression that he didn’t have a clue what a ‘zoo’ was, because she sighed and said, “They capture wild animals and take care of them so that everyone can see them.”

InuYasha’s eyes narrowed. “They _cage_ them?”

“It sounds crueler than it is. There are a lot of species that would have died out if they weren’t,” Kagome explained with a grimace, as though she realized how lame her excuse sounded.

“Where is this ‘zoo’?” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kagome’s eyes widened in alarm. “Oh, no, InuYasha . . . _No_.”

Pausing with his hand on Tetsusaiga’s hilt, he glowered down at her. “They’re not meant to be kept, wench.”

“You’re not breaking into the zoo, InuYasha. Absolutely not.”

“Kagome! InuYasha!” Miroku and Sango ran into the kitchen, crashing into InuYasha’s back and panting for breath.

“What’s wrong with you?” InuYasha demanded, rounding to stare at the monk and his wife after he caught himself before he ended up flat on his face.

“Sprinting has a habit of doing that,” Miroku explained dryly. “We were worried.”

“Come on, lecher. We’ve got a job to do.”

“No!” Kagome insisted.

“Can I come, Papa?” Shippou piped up.

“ _No!_ ” Kagome insisted louder.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Give me one good reason—”

“Jail!” she yelled, “which would mean you in a cage, all day, every day, for however long they make you stay in there . . . You can’t right every wrong in this day and age, and you really can’t do it with Tetsusaiga.”

He snorted. He really hated it when Kagome was right about this sort of thing . . . “Keh! Fine,” he snarled, letting go of his sword while Kagome and Mrs. Higurashi explained the situation to Miroku and Sango.

Unwilling to let go of his sulk, InuYasha leaned back against the wall as the others sat down at the table.

Shippou hopped down and ran out of the room only to return moments later. “InuYasha? Do . . . do you want to see my papers?”

InuYasha glanced down at the kitsune and held out his hand. Shippou hopped up onto his shoulder to explain his assignments. With a small smile, InuYasha nodded. The kitsune seemed to enjoy the challenge of the school work. “You like it here, Shippou?”

The kitsune nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! It’s fun! There are lots of things to do, and Grandma said she’d buy me a skateboard . . .”

An odd sense of loss wrenched at InuYasha’s chest. Adopting Shippou just to leave him in the present? He handed the papers back to the kit and ruffled his hair. “Go show Kagome, runt,” he said gruffly. Shippou hopped down and shoved the papers under Kagome’s nose. InuYasha shook his head slowly, ears drooping as his shoulders slumped. ‘ _As long as he’s happy, I guess I can’t complain_ . . .’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Leikizu  
> _** _I wonder how the voting is going on what our child(ren) will be_ . . .


	83. Pensive

Kagome sat in the grass enjoying the beautiful early July day. InuYasha sat in Goshinboku staring over the forest. She shielded her eyes from the bright sunshine and sighed. ‘ _It’d be easier to figure out what’s bothering him if he’d talk about it_ ,’ she thought with a frown. Dropping her hand, she flopped onto her back, hands folded together on her stomach.

Something was bothering him. She knew it. It had been eating at him ever since the day they’d returned to find Shippou so upset about the zoo, and that was nearly six weeks ago. While she knew the idea of caging all those animals hadn’t thrilled him, she had a feeling that there was more to it than that. Part of his irritation was due to the fact that he couldn’t find Myouga anywhere, nor had he been able to uncover any leads as to Norimitsu’s whereabouts. Splitting their time between here and her time, the longer he was made to wait the more frustrated he grew, and the more frustrated he grew, the further she felt him slip away from her. As though he was withdrawing into his own mind, Kagome couldn’t help but feel a twinge of loneliness at times like this.

She sighed and stared at the fluffy white clouds slowly drifting past. ‘ _I used to lie for hours and watch clouds with InuYasha_ . . .’ She swallowed the lump that welled up in her throat.

“Getting lazy, wench?”

Standing with his face turned up to stare at the clouds, InuYasha towered over her, hands at his sides, an unfathomable restlessness tingeing the edges of his youki with a melancholy twist.

“Will you sit with me?” she asked softly, hesitantly.

Half expecting him not to, she was pleasantly surprised when he sank down beside her, stretching out on his side and propping his head on his raised hand. “I hate this,” he remarked with a scowl.

His words felt like a knife to her chest. She struggled to keep her breathing regular as she shifted her gaze to meet his. “I don’t understand.”

Shaking his head, his scowl darkened as he dug his free hand into the grass. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” he finally said, his tone rife with repressed anger. “Shippou’s supposed to be our kit, and he’s _there_ . . . I can’t find that fucking flea anywhere . . . Norimitsu’s fallen off the face of the earth, which would be great but I owe him an ass-beating . . . _Damn_ it!”

Blinking quickly, Kagome tried to steady her voice before she managed to ask him, “Are you . . . sorry?”

“For what?”

‘ _Oh, why does he have to make me spell it out?_ ’ she fumed and sighed. “About . . . us?”

“ _What?_ ” he bellowed.

Rolling onto her side, she carefully kept her gaze on the grass between them. “I mean, you’ve been so distant, and . . . and you haven’t wanted to . . . you haven’t . . . .” Unable to finish her sentence, Kagome felt her cheeks flaming hot as she bit her bottom lip, resolved not to cry.

“D-don’t be stupid!” he yelled, shooting to his feet to stomp around, pacing back and forth as though he were trying to regain control of his temper.

“I’m not being stupid!” she maintained stubbornly. “I can’t read your mind! I never know what you’re thinking, and—”

“Wench! You _are_ stupid if you think I regret us! You’re the only thing I _don’t_ regret, and don’t make me tell you that again!”

Kagome scrambled to her feet and stalked forward, poking InuYasha’s chest to punctuate her words. “Then don’t push me away!”

“I wasn’t trying to!” he roared, “and stop poking me!”

Without thinking, she reached up and tweaked his nose. Golden eyes widening in shock, he stared at her as though he couldn’t believe what she’d done. “Oi! You can’t _tweak_ me!”

Narrowing her gaze, Kagome stood her ground. “Funny. I just did.” To reiterate her point, she did it again.

“You’ve got till ten, wench,” he growled. “One . . . two . . . three . . .”

Kagome didn’t wait to hear more. Taking off at a sprint, she bit her cheek as she peeked over her shoulder without slowing down. ‘ _That . . . might not have been a good idea_ . . .’ she thought as she sped into the forest. With a wincing smile, Kagome choked out an incredulous laugh. ‘ _At least I got his attention . . ._ ’

InuYasha must have reached ten. Kagome shrieked as InuYasha caught her and bore her to the ground, rolling so that he took the brunt of the impact on the ground, holding Kagome against his chest as she struggled to breathe and to escape. His arms tightened around her, stilling her protests as his hips rose to press against her.   She gasped.

Leaning up, he tweaked her nose with his. She tried not to giggle. It didn’t work. “Oi! No laughing at your punishment, wench!” he growled, leaning up to do it again. Her giggles escalated then dissolved into a moan as he rolled, pinning her against the ground, mouth falling over hers. Ardent, hungry, his lips demanded as she whimpered, her hands trapped between them. Clutching at his haori, she matched his fervor with a ferocity of her own. With another growl, he nipped at her, telling her through his actions that he was definitely in charge.

Shivering under his touch as tactile feeling took control, she gave herself up to the flood of sensation as waves of fire coursed through her. An odd sound issued from him, a self-satisfied half-growl full of purely dominant pleasure.

“Kagome!” Miroku’s voice, dim and far away, registered in her mind as her brain tried to ignore it. “Kagome!”

With an irate growl, InuYasha pushed off of her, dragged her to her feet. She stumbled and fell against him. He caught her and chuckled despite his rising irritation. “I’m going to fucking kill that monk,” he promised. Kagome couldn’t summon the will to argue with him.

Miroku sped down the path toward them, skidding to a stop and taking no notice at all of their disheveled appearance. Kagome frowned as she took note of the wildness in Miroku’s eyes, the flush that stained his normally pale skin. He looked wholly ruffled, and that was something odd, all by itself.

“You must come!” he gasped out, doubling over, leaning on his knees as he struggled to draw breath at the same time he struggled to speak. “Sango . . . she . . . pain . . . and bleeding . . . blood . . .”

“Pain?” Kagome echoed as she started running. “What do you mean?”

“Stomach,” Miroku gasped out. “Says . . . it hurts . . .”

Kagome shot InuYasha a quick look. It wasn’t like Sango to admit that anything really hurt. That was more than enough to make them move faster. The hanyou grabbed Kagome in one hand and Miroku in the other, tossing them both onto his back as he gained speed.

“She said it’s been hurting the last couple days but she never told anyone,” Miroku admitted, his face registering his upset. Kagome held onto InuYasha’s shoulder with one hand and tried to pat the monk’s back with the other. A half-sob escaped him, and Kagome winced at her friend’s obvious pain. “Her pain is getting worse and worse . . . and I don’t know what to do for her.”

“Shut up, Monk,” InuYasha tossed over his shoulder.

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped at his obvious insensitivity.

“Keh! If you fall apart on your mate, who will she rely on then?”

Miroku’s shocked expression faded as a steely resolve surfaced in its place. “You’re right. Kagome . . . what could it be?”

Kagome shook her head. “I don’t know . . .”

Miroku’s eyes bored into her skull, the intensity of his gaze daring her to lie. “But you can help her, right? With your modern medicines?”

She shook her head again, unable to make a promise she wasn’t sure if she could keep.   “I’ll try,” she promised.

Miroku swallowed hard and nodded.

InuYasha let them off his back at their hut. Kagome darted inside. Miroku started to follow. InuYasha caught him and held him back. “Let Kagome see her,” he growled. Miroku started to protest. “Don’t be stupid! Sango won’t say what’s wrong if you’re there.”

The monk looked as though he wanted to argue with InuYasha. In the end, he nodded. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” he admitted quietly, pacing the small yard before the hut. “InuYasha . . . what if—”

“Keh! Don’t be fucking stupid,” InuYasha snarled, folding his arms together under his sleeves. “Sango’s stronger than the both of us put together. She’ll be fine.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome yelled from inside. Something scared, desperate in her tone . . . InuYasha ran inside.

The stench of blood, of death filled the small hut, the smell of something very different from Sango’s normally mild fragrance. InuYasha wrinkled his nose as he hurried over to Kagome, who was kneeling beside the pallet where the youkai exterminator lay. Miroku hovered over their shoulders. The monk winced at the blood—Sango’s blood—that soaked through the thin blanket covering her small form. Kagome eyes, awash with tears, met InuYasha’s. “She needs a doctor,” Kagome rasped out, her voice shaking, her eyes desperately seeking reassurances that InuYasha couldn’t give her. “She _really_ needs a doctor.”

InuYasha didn’t wait to hear more. Careful as he lifted Sango, he cradled her unconscious body to him. She burned with fever, and InuYasha winced as her skin seemed to scald him.

“Get to the shrine and tell Mama to call an ambulance. I think Sango’s miscarrying,” Kagome called after him. “She’ll understand. We’ll be right there.”

InuYasha nodded as he sprinted back toward the forest. “Come on, Sango,” he mumbled, glancing down at the woman hanging limply in his arms. “If you . . . that pervert will fall to pieces . . . hang on!”

Eyes burning, stung with emotion that he blinked back with a vengeance, InuYasha leaped into the well as he heard the others coming behind him on Kirara.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Waking with a soft groan in the pervasive silence, she squinted at the bright light filtering through the open window. ‘ _Where am I?_ ’ she thought, her mind dazed, foggy. ‘ _How did I . . . ?_ ’

A soft knock announced the visitor. “Come in,” she called and winced, feeling her head throb against her own raised voice.

“You’re looking much better. Do you know where you are?”

Stifling a moan, Ayamakita rolled over on the pallet. “Katosan . . . what are you doing here?”

His soft chuckle was somehow soothing to her. “I live here, Aya.”

She struggled to sit up, her face contorting in a mask of pain. He reached over to help her. For reasons she didn’t dare consider, she allowed him to do it. “Why?” she finally asked, her tone almost petulant, avoiding his gaze as she stared at the blanket that covered her. “Why didn’t you let me die?”

Katosan shrugged as he leaned back on his heels. “Am I cold enough to do something like that?”

“I thought you hated me,” she countered.

“I don’t like you but I don’t hate you,” he replied lightly, almost teasingly. Ayamakita shot him a quizzical glance.

“That isn’t very comforting,” she remarked with a more pronounced frown. “How long have I been here?”

Katosan shrugged. “Awhile. I was starting to wonder if you’d ever regain yourself.”

“It was that miko . . . she tried to purify me,” Ayamakita stared, her tone dull, flat.

“Did you deserve it?”

She winced at Katosan’s too-reasonable question. “Perhaps,” she admitted, her expression pouting.

Katosan chuckled. “I never thought you’d admit to that.”

She sighed. “I had to do it. I made a pact with Norimitsu. If I don’t, he’ll kill me.”

“And if you go after InuYasha-sama again, his miko will kill you, if he doesn’t, himself.”

Ayamakita shifted her gaze to meet his. “And you would let her.”

“Do you believe I could stop her?”

Shrugging in what she hoped was a show of nonchalance, Ayamakita flicked her hand dismissively. “You should have let me die.”

Katosan’s eyebrows rose. “Would I do such a thing?”

Shaking her head, she blinked innocently at him, absently noting the way the light played off his hair, the way the golden sheen seemed to caress him. ‘ _Still beautiful_ ,’ she mused with a frown. Shifting her gaze away once more, she shrugged and said, “And you shouldn’t be in here . . . alone with me.”

“You’ve never really cared for convention, Aya. Don’t tell me you’re going to stand on it now.” She didn’t correct him. His eyebrows drew together again when he noticed her fatigue. He helped her lay back down and pulled her blanket up under her chin. “Go back to sleep. I’ll check in on you later.”

“Katosan . . . what went wrong?” she asked quietly, catching his hand, all traces of her carefully constructed façade stripped away.

He looked away, remembering the past, a time so long ago . . . a time when they were the best of friends. How many times had they walked through the gardens? How often had he laughed with her, smiled with her? How much anger had she hidden from him, pretending not to care . . . and he had never known . . .

A discernable sadness in his gaze, the passing years seemed to fall away. As he brought his eyes back to meet hers, she winced to see the pain that the memories caused him. “You chose Sesshoumaru,” he answered quietly.

“I chose Sesshoumaru because I couldn’t have you,” she whispered, fighting to keep her expression blank, fighting to keep the waning hurt from resurfacing again. It was a futile effort.

“It was a long time ago,” he mumbled. “Best to leave it in the past.” He let go of her hand and left as silently as he had come.  

‘ _In the past . . ._ ’

In that time when they ran together, reaching for the ends of the earth, laughing as they chased each other through the hills, through the mists. She still wasn’t certain when everything had changed.

Ayamakita watched him go, a suspect hotness, a prickling sensation behind her eyes. ‘ _After all these years,’_ she marveled with a bittersweet smile, _‘I didn’t know I could still . . . cry . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Kagome rubbed Miroku’s back as they sat in the waiting room. InuYasha paced the floor, unable to stand still, while Mrs. Higurashi sipped tea from a paper cup and did her best to offer smiles of encouragement to those assembled. Miroku’s face was pale, drawn, ashen, and he clutched his prayer beads in his hands, between his palms, muttering prayers over and over.

“This is my fault,” he rasped out quietly. “They say monks who turn their backs on the teachings . . .”

“Don’t say that,” Kagome insisted, “she’ll be fine . . . you just have to believe.”

Miroku nodded and resumed his prayers.

“Sir, you really can’t be in here without shoes,” a nurse remarked to InuYasha, who slowly turned to stab her with a fierce glower. She blinked in surprise and stepped back before mumbling something about, “fine for now,” before she hurried out of the room again.

“What the fuck is taking them so long?” InuYasha growled, gripping the window sill and scraping his claws against the metal frame. Kagome gritted her teeth but remained silent as the sound cut through her, making her wince.

“Sometimes it takes awhile,” Mrs. Higurashi remarked in her calm voice. “It’s good. It means they’re helping her.”

“Uncle? What are you doing here?”

All heads turned to stare at Nibori, who had stepped into the waiting room with a curious frown on his face.

InuYasha made a face. “It’s Sango,” Kagome spoke up since InuYasha looked like he’d rather tear into his nephew than talk to him. “The doctor hasn’t been out to tell us anything yet though.”

“Sango?” Nibori repeated, and oddly alarmed look surfacing on his normally friendly face. “It must be serious, if you brought her here.”

“We don’t know . . .”

Nibori nodded and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Dialing a number, he waited only seconds before he spoke into the device. “Father . . . yes . . . no, Mother’s fine . . . Uncle is here . . . yes, that’s right . . . All right . . . of course . . . I understand.” Clicking the phone closed and stowing it back into his pocket, he rubbed his forehead and bowed. “I’ll be right back.”

“What the hell was that all about?” InuYasha grumbled, narrowing his eyes as he watched Nibori’s hasty retreat. “Why’d he call that bastard?”

“Mr. Higurashi?”

Miroku shot to his feet. Mrs. Higurashi, having realized that Miroku and Sango didn’t actually have a last name, had given that as Sango’s when the ambulance had arrived. The doctor offered Miroku a slight bow. “How is she?” Miroku demanded. “I want to see her.”

The doctor sighed and shook his head slowly. “It’s complicated. Your wife has suffered an ectopic pregnancy.” Seeing the confusion on Miroku’s face, the doctor drew a deep breath. “It means that she conceived but that the fetus isn’t in the right place to allow it to grow.” Miroku uttered a sick sound, a mix of a sob and a groan. “The fallopian tube burst, and they’re prepping her for surgery now. We’re doing everything we—”

“Thank you, doctor. I’ll be taking over this case, if you please.” Staring at the newest doctor to enter the room, Kagome frowned. “I’m Dr. Yukina.” The other doctor seemed a bit irritated but he nodded and left. “I just wanted to stop in and introduce myself. I’ll have a nurse come in to explain anything you don’t understand. The surgery could take awhile. May I suggest our excellent cafeteria? I can have you paged when there is word.”

Kagome watched the doctor leave with a marked frown. “Why did they switch her doctor?” she muttered as Miroku collapsed back into his chair. “Miroku? I’m so sorry . . .”

“I don’t understand,” Miroku admitted, “What did he mean?”

Kagome swallowed hard. She had learned about some of these things in health class before. “It means that Sango was pregnant but the baby wasn’t in the right place,” she explained quietly. “The baby must have gotten too big in that place, and it tore open inside her. I’m sure the doctors can help her, Miroku.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about your misfortune.”

Kagome glanced up and stood as Leikizu, with Nibori beside her, hurried over to offer Miroku a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Rest assured, Dr. Yukina is one of the best there is anywhere. He’s my doctor, and I asked him to take care of Sango for you.” Miroku closed his eyes, focusing his attention on his prayer beads again.

InuYasha strode over to Nibori, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why did you call Sesshoumaru? Why would he care what’s going on with Sango?”

Nibori shrugged. “Surely you wanted to best care for her, didn’t you? Ectopic pregnancies aren’t something to take lightly.”

Kagome frowned. “How did you know that’s what was wrong?” she asked.

Nibori shifted uncomfortably and forced a weak chuckle. “I didn’t,” he remarked. “I simply thought she would benefit from a specialized doctor. We were here to see Mother’s doctor.”

“Is something wrong?” Kagome asked.

Leikizu shook her head. “No, everything’s fine. Sesshoumaru and I decided to have another child.”

InuYasha opened his mouth to speak but stopped, his face registering surprise as he slowly turned to stare at Leikizu. Deliberately sniffing, his eyes flared as he stepped back, a look of nearly comical horror surfacing. “Keh! What’d you do a thing like that for?” he growled, staring at Leikizu in abject disgust.

“Still a baka, aren’t you?” Sesshoumaru drawled as he strode into the waiting room.

Leikizu finally noticed Mrs. Higurashi, who was still sitting in the same chair, patiently waiting. “You must be Kagome’s mother! I’m so pleased to meet you! I’m Leikizu, and we’re so happy to have Kagome in the family now.”

Mrs. Higurashi, staring over at the brothers who were standing toe to toe, neither looking pleased by the other’s appearance, shook her head. “Yes, Kagome speaks highly of you.”

Leikizu peeked back over her shoulder at the men and rolled her eyes. “Ignore them. They always get territorial whenever they’re in the same _time_ period. In any case, Kagome’s just a lovely girl, and we’re so proud of InuYasha for making such a perfect choice in taking a mate.”

Mrs. Higurashi blushed. Kagome’s blush was darker. “I still expect them to marry,” Mrs. Higurashi commented with a marked glance at her daughter.

Kagome winced as Leikizu turned to eye her critically. “Kagome, when are you and InuYasha going to give Shippou that brother or sister he’s been wanting?”

“Uh . . .”

“He’s mentioned that to me, as well,” Mrs. Higurashi said with a giggle. “But Kagome has promised to wait till after she’s done with school before they think about having children.”

Kagome made a face as the other two women seemed to forget that she was standing right there beside them. She shook her head slowly and turned to grab Miroku’s hand. Her mother was still chatting with Leikizu, probably about things that Kagome didn’t want to hear, and InuYasha was preoccupied with his and Sesshoumaru’s snarling contest. “Come on. You look like you could use some fresh air, and so could I.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Do you think it was a good idea to leave him there?” Kagome ventured as InuYasha paced the bedroom floor. His raven locks seemed darker in the wan light, and she wondered if his humanity had affected his hearing worse than usual since he didn’t answer right away. “Miroku’s not that familiar with my time, and—”

“And he’ll be fine. Besides, do you honestly think we could have gotten him to leave?”

“I suppose,” she agreed with a sigh. Hugging her raised knees, her eyes fell on the opened calculus book on the bed. She’d given up studying after five minutes. Her mind was still in the hospital with her grieving friends. Sango had been in surgery for nearly four hours as the doctors worked to repair her torn fallopian tube. In the end, they’d failed. When Sango woke and listened to the explanation, Miroku had looked so helpless as he held her while she sobbed, mourning not only the child she had lost but also the idea that she might never have children at all.

Worse had been when Dr. Yukina had come in and explained in hushed tones and in simplest terms that Sango suffered from a condition called a ‘septate uterus’, which basically meant that there was an extra wall of skin inside her uterus that, in her case, seemed to prevent normal pregnancy. Even if she succeeded in getting pregnant without the surgery, it was highly probable that she would miscarry the baby in the first trimester since the septate would prevent adequate room for growth. While the anomaly could be removed with surgery, because of the ruptured fallopian tube, it was very doubtful that Sango would be able to have children regularly, without the use of fertility drugs since, and those were definitely not available in the past.

InuYasha had been even more withdrawn since they left the hospital. Kagome stared at him. Staring out the window at Goshinboku, he seemed to be deep in thought. She wondered if he remembered she was there, at all. “InuYasha?”

“Hmm?”

“What are you thinking about?”

InuYasha sighed then shrugged. “I never realized there was so much danger in having pups,” he admitted. “Sango could have . . . She almost . . .”

Rising off the bed, Kagome went to him, wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, his upset touching her, and she closed her eyes against it. Was it more acute because of his human status for the night?

“She’ll be fine, though . . . and it isn’t always so risky.”

“Kagome . . .” he mumbled, burying his lips in her hair. “I just keep thinking . . . What if it had been you? I can’t . . .”

She sighed and tightened her arms around him. “Don’t think that way, okay? The doctors can help Sango and Miroku . . . It’s not hopeless . . .”

He didn’t answer as he rested his chin against her hair. She could sense his fear, the blatant worry that Sango had inspired in him. “It’ll be all right, you’ll see,” she assured him quietly. “Everything will be exactly how it was meant to be.”

InuYasha’s back tensed. “How do we know? How do we know what is supposed to be?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. We just have to believe.”

He nodded slowly. “Believe, huh?” They stared outside for a long while, the ticking of the clock the only sound to be heard. “I don’t always know what to believe,” he finally whispered. “But I believe in you.”

Kagome leaned up to kiss his cheek. He pulled her close, her cheek against his chest, her forehead nestled in the crook of his neck. “I believe in _us_ ,” she replied.

She smiled vaguely as the tension eased out of him.

Goshinboku swayed in the night.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Sesshoumaru :  
> _ ** _InuYasha no baka . . . he never appreciates anything, does he?_


	84. Strange Days

InuYasha stared at Miroku with unmasked amazement in his expression, a brightness in his gaze, a confusion furrowing his brow. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Miroku nodded slowly. The perpetual optimism that was his creed seemed conspicuously absent, a strange determination, a deeper will as he met InuYasha’s stare, as he returned it. “There isn’t really a choice. This is what Sango wants . . .”

InuYasha stared at the Bone Eater’s Well with a frown. The villagers had pitched in to rebuild the well walls. It looked exactly as it always had even though the wood was obviously newer. The only difference was the ladder that had been built up inside it to aide the humans in entering and exiting the well. “Are you sure? Do you really think you can trust him?”

Shaking his head, Miroku shrugged. “I don’t think we have a choice. I can’t let Sango down . . . I’m not saying we’ll never come back. You know that if you need us, we’ll come,” he went on. “What would you do if you were me? What would you do if Kagome wanted children but couldn’t have them? There’s nothing left for us here. We have no ties binding us to this time. Sango’s family is all dead, and mine . . .” Shaking his head, he stopped as though he had to gather his thoughts before continuing. “We’re all we have now, each other, and I have to think of Sango and what she wants.”

InuYasha nodded. “Keh, well, it isn’t like we’ll never see you. You’re staying at the shrine, right?”

Miroku nodded. “Yes, at least for now. Come, Kirara.” With a wan smile as the fire cat hopped into his arms, the monk turned and dropped back into the well. InuYasha watched him go.

‘ _They’re staying in the present . . . in Kagome’s time_.’

Shaking his head, InuYasha stared at the clearing. ‘ _I have to think of Sango and what she wants ._ . .’

Sango had been released from the hospital after three days, and in the last ten days, she’d been recuperating at the shrine in the main house since it was easier for her to manage with Mrs. Higurashi’s help. He could understand Miroku and Sango’s choice. If it came down to it, he would choose pups, too.

It wasn’t so much that they’d chosen to live in Kagome’s time that bothered InuYasha. It was his brother’s interference that did. ‘ _What is that bastard trying to prove?_ ’ InuYasha wondered again. ‘ _He’d better not demand another one of my fangs for this. I didn’t have a thing to do with this one, and I sure as hell ain’t adopting Miroku . . ._ ’

Sesshoumaru had offered Miroku a job as the head of mansion security. Because of his training, both as a monk as well as a youkai exterminator, Miroku’s skills would be invaluable—or so Sesshoumaru claimed. InuYasha didn’t trust him. He never had. Kagome had told him that the job paid well, and that Sesshoumaru would also offer medical benefits to Miroku and Sango, and that those benefits should cover the expense of having Sango’s fertility problem taken care of.

Still, it smacked InuYasha as strange, almost as though Sesshoumaru was going out of his way to be . . . nice? He snorted. ‘ _The day that bastard develops a nice streak is the day I fucking die_.’

Leaning on the edge of the well, InuYasha sighed. Kagome had asked him to come back and make certain that everything was safe here. It struck him again, how fast everything seemed to be changing. First, with claiming Kagome, then with Shippou . . . then Shippou choosing to stay in the modern world to go to school, and now with Miroku and Sango’s exit . . . was there anything left for him here?

He frowned, gaze narrowing as he scanned the horizon. ‘ _Keh! I got some scores to settle before I go anywhere_.’

“InuYasha-sama! What a pleasant surprise.”

InuYasha blinked quickly, staring at the missing flea youkai. “Myouga.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Kagome frowned as she stared at the letter in her hand. It didn’t make sense. Heading for the kitchen without looking up from the paper, she sank down at the table and shook her head, extending the letter to her mother. “What is this?”

Mrs. Higurashi set her tea cup aside and took the paper, a thoughtful frown furrowing her brow as she shook her head. “I don’t know . . . would you like for me to call and ask?”

Kagome shook her head slowly and took the letter from her mother’s extended hand. “I will. It was addressed to me, so I guess I should call . . .”

Mrs. Higurashi handed her the cordless phone and headed for the doorway. “I’m going to check in on Sango.”

Kagome nodded as her mother left. Dialing the number on the letterhead, Kagome didn’t have to wait long for her call to be answered. “Yes, this is Higurashi Kagome, and I’m calling about a letter I received today?”

“Higurashi,” the woman on the other end mumbled. “Oh, yes, you’re in our internet schooling database . . . that letter was sent by Mrs. Uneomou, correct? Let me see if she’s free . . .”

Kagome reread the letter as she waited on hold.

 

 

 _Dear Miss Higurashi_ :

 _It has come to the attention of this office that you are about to enter your final year of internet schooling, and while we will accept your decision to continue, we have recently reviewed our policies. You have been chosen as one of the few who, should you pass your final exams within the top percentile, we will allow you to graduate at the conclusion of this scholastic term_ . . . .

 

 

“Mrs. Uneomou. Higurashi Kagome, yes?”

Kagome started as the phone was answered by another woman. “Yes, hi. I was calling about the letter I received?”

“Oh, yes! We’ve reviewed our policies, and, as the letter stated, so long as you complete your exams with no less than a three-point-seven-five on a four point scale, we’ll allow you to graduate at the end of this term, if you’re willing. Is this something you’d be interested in, Kagome? You would, of course, be accepted by any university without prejudice, meaning that they wouldn’t mind if you graduated a year early because of this.”

Kagome shook her head, trying to make sense of what she was being told. “Sure . . . I need to talk it over with my mother, but I think so . . .”

Mrs. Uneomou laughed. “Of course! After your exams, we’ll send you the forms to fill out, assuming you qualify grade-wise. Any more questions?”

“No . . . thank you,” she said as she clicked the phone off.

Mrs. Higurashi bustled back into the kitchen with an empty glass and a happy smile. “It seems Sango is feeling much better today. She’s resting now . . . did you find out anything about that letter?”

Kagome nodded, idly refolding the paper and unfolding it again. “Yes, they said that, so long as I score at least a three-point-seven-five on all my exams that I will qualify for early graduation . . . if . . . you think it’s all right.”

Leaning her head to the side, Mrs. Higurashi smiled. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Shrugging, Kagome tried to keep her tone neutral. “I don’t know . . . I know you’ve had a hard time dealing with InuYasha and me, and—”

“And I’ve never seen you so happy, darling. It just makes me glad to know that you and he are so devoted to each other . . . and it makes me feel old.”

Kagome smiled despite herself. “You’re not old, Mama.”

She opened the refrigerator and started assembling the ingredients for dinner. “I suppose you’ll want to go tell InuYasha right away?”

Making a face, Kagome shook her head slowly. “Actually . . . could you not tell him? I mean, I’ll be nervous enough about it without the added worry that he’s counting on me to pass them. It’ll take a lot of studying to get those marks.”

Mrs. Higurashi smiled. “Certainly, dear. If you don’t wish to tell him, then I’ll keep your secret.”

Kagome hopped up and kissed her mother’s cheek. “Thanks, Mama. I’m going to go see if Miroku’s back yet.”

Folding the letter, Kagome stuck it in her pocket as she headed through the house and out the back door.

She wanted to share the news with InuYasha, but on the other hand, she was almost afraid that, in his twisted efforts to help her study, he’d wind up becoming more of a hindrance than a help. She grinned. No, she’d much rather wait, take the tests, pass them if she could, and be proud of herself in the end.

Miroku stepped out of the well house and let Kirara down as he waved at Kagome. “How’s Sango?”

Kagome smiled. “Mama says she’s sleeping.”

Miroku’s relief was evident. His eyes brightened, and he grinned, too. “Good. She wasn’t resting very well.”

“I can’t say that I blame her. How are you?”

True to form, Miroku’s smile didn’t wane. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Sango’s the one I worry about.”

“She’s a fighter.”

“Yes, she is.”

Kagome sighed and shook her head. “Did InuYasha take the news well?”

Miroku made a face. “Sort of,” he hedged. “He wasn’t unhappy about it. He’s worried about Sesshoumaru’s motives, and I can’t really blame him.”

Kagome nodded. “You know, for as helpful as Sesshoumaru’s been in this time, there is something weird . . . like he’s got reasons that he doesn’t want to tell anyone.”

“That could be. Who wouldn’t have some sort of tale to tell after a five hundred years?” Miroku suddenly turned thoughtful, a darkness, a shadow falling over his normally carefree expression. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Kagome . . . I’ve thought a lot about the well, and about how it works . . . It used to be that InuYasha and you were the only ones who could get through, but after he reopened it . . .”

A vague shiver raced up Kagome’s spine. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a feeling that Miroku’s thoughts on the subject weren’t something she wanted to hear . . .

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the worthless vassal he’d been saddled with. “Where the fuck have you been?”

Myouga blinked innocently. “Me? I’ve been where I always am . . . why? Was there something you required?”

“Cut the crap, you parasite. Tell me what you know about the well.”

“The well?” Myouga repeated, looking distinctly nervous.

“Yes, the well, or I’ll squash you.”

“Now, now, let’s not be hasty, InuYasha-sama . . .” Sinking down and crossing his legs, Myouga cleared his throat as he prepared to launch into his explanation. InuYasha drummed his claws on the ledge of the well, impatiently waiting for the flea to spill his guts. “As you know, you reopened the well with the power of Tetsusaiga, but it isn’t a permanent slip.”

“What do you mean?”

Myouga scooted further away from InuYasha’s claws before continuing. “Well, Tetsusaiga has been strengthened by the power of the blood bond between you and Kagome-sama, but your friends have all crossed into the present—into Kagome-sama’s time. The power of Blue Tetsusaiga is balanced by the ones you wish to protect in this time . . . your friends—”

“Keh!” InuYasha scoffed, making a face as he crossed his arms over his chest again and gave his hair an arrogant toss. “Sango and the monk have decided that they want to stay there . . . Blame that damned bastard of a brother of mine for that,” he muttered, jerking his head toward the well.

The flea hopped up, waving his arms in the air. “What’s that? What did you say?”

InuYasha snorted. “I said that they’re going to stay in Kagome’s time,” he growled. “Damn it! What the fuck is Sesshoumaru up to, anyway? That bastard! I ought to—”

“Did they already go through?”

Blinking at the interruption, it took a moment for InuYasha to make sense of Myouga’s question. “What? Of course they did. You saw the monk leave, didn’t you?”

“Oh, dear,” Myouga muttered, rubbing his hands in a decidedly nervous fashion. “And the fire-cat?”

InuYasha’s confused scowl deepened. “Kirara?”

“Yes, Kirara!”

“He took her with him,” InuYasha stated. “What the fuck does that matter, anyway?”

The flea actually looked panicked . . . “So they’ve all gone, have they?”

“What are you saying?”

Myouga shook his head. “InuYasha-sama, I’m saying that the time slip stayed open so long as you needed to get through, so long as you had those you wished to protect, and . . .”

“And what?” InuYasha prodded.

Myouga looked like he was going to cry. “Surely you’re not going to make me say it?”

“Say what?”

“You must go through! You must do it now, and don’t look back!” Myouga insisted, the pitch of his voice rising as a measure of apprehension started to take hold of InuYasha’s gut. “Go on!”

InuYasha leaned away from the flea and eyed him as though he thought that Myouga was losing his mind. “What’s your rush? I’ll go . . . give me a minute. I need to make sure the old hag don’t need nothing before I do. I might not make it back here for a while, and—”

Myouga waved his arms around in his excitement. “The well will close, and it won’t matter which side of it you’re on, you’ll be stuck forever!”

A sudden tremor shook the ground. InuYasha’s eyes widened as he stared at Myouga. “What the—?”

“Go!” Myouga hollered, leaping onto InuYasha’s shoulder and stabbing him for one last long drink. InuYasha smacked him. “Go! _It’s closing!_ ” Myouga hollered as InuYasha hopped onto the ledge of the well.

“See you in the future,” InuYasha called over his shoulder.

Myouga shook his head. “You won’t, InuYasha-sama! It’s been a pleasure serving you! Live long with Kagome-sama . . . .” The rest of Myouga’s words were muffled, and InuYasha only heard part of them.   “So long as . . . protect her . . . Tetsusaiga, she’ll . . . goodbye!”

InuYasha didn’t get a chance to answer. The ground shook again, and he fell off the ledge into the black hole as the walls of the well collapsed around him.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“What are you doing?”

Miroku blinked and slowly turned to peer over his shoulder at the young miko. She intercepted the look and smiled as Kirara weaved around her feet, rubbing against her legs. Her smile faded a little, though, when Miroku turned away to stare thoughtfully at the well house once more. Something about his stance, his silence, even the air around him . . . She cleared her throat. “Are you okay, Miroku?”

For a moment, she didn’t know if he’d heard her or not. He gave no real indication. Finally, though, he crossed his arms over his chest and gave a curt nod, but he didn’t turn to face her. “You’ve said that matter cannot exist on two separate planes, right?”

Kagome nodded slowly and stared at the ground, almost afraid to meet Miroku’s gaze. “That’s what the textbooks say, anyway,” she agreed.

“Like InuYasha’s mother’s diary.”

She nodded again.

Miroku sighed and led Kagome over to sit on the bench under Goshinboku’s canopy of leaves. “That would explain why Sango and I could get through. We’d have died long ago, in the past, and Shippou . . .” He trailed off with a sigh. “We all know what happened there . . .”

“Don’t say it,” Kagome whispered, eyes flashing to meet Miroku’s, a gentle pleading entering her expression. She shook her head, refused to believe what Miroku implied . . . refused to listen to the voice in her mind that told her that what he said made perfect sense. “Don’t say that InuYasha . . . Don’t.”

Miroku’s gaze was pained, and he tried to force a smile. “Perhaps I’m wrong,” he offered.

Before Kagome could answer, the ground shook with an ominous rumble that seemed to come from the well-house. Shooting Miroku a cursory glance, the two ran for the well as a sudden and terrible sense of foreboding washed over her, gripping her heart, refusing to let go.

“The well’s collapsing!” Miroku yelled. Kagome barely heard him. “Kagome! No!” Grabbing her arms, holding her back, Kagome screamed as, with a terrible groan, another shattering roar, the well caved in.

“InuYasha!” she shrieked over and over as the earth stopped shaking, as the rumble died away. “ _InuYasha!_ ” Tearing away from Miroku’s grasp, she stumbled down the stairs and dropped next to the pile of soft earth. “ _InuYasha!_ ” she screeched as a small sob escaped her, as she dug furiously at the earth, as though she could dig her way through the well.

Miroku mumbled something, grasped her shoulders to pull her away. She shoved him back and kept digging. “InuYasha!” Wiping away tears with her forearm, the sting of dirt, the ache of her panic choking her as she dug faster. “Don’t just stand there, Miroku! Help me! I’ve got to . . . he’s . . . InuYasha . . .”

“Kagome . . .” Miroku said slowly, kneeling beside her and trying to draw her into his embrace. She pushed him back again. “Listen, Kagome . . . You can’t help him! You can’t! I think he might be—”

“No!” she screamed. “No, he’s not! He’s . . . he _can’t_ be . . . _InuYasha!_ ”

He didn’t answer.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Myouga:  
> _ ** _I’m calling my agent . . . you’ve written me out of the story? I feel so . . . used!!_


	85. My Immortal

‘ _My Immortal_ ’

by Evanescence

from the album “ **Fallen** ”

‘ _I’m so tired of being here_ . . .  
 _Suppressed by all of my childish fears_ . . .  
 _And if you have to leave_ . . .  
 _I wish that you would just leave_ . . .  
 _Because your presence still lingers here_ . . .  
 _And it won't leave me alone_ . . .

 

 _These wounds won't seem to heal_ . . .  
 _This pain is just too real_ . . .  
 _There’s just too much that time cannot erase_ . . .

 

 _When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears_ . . .  
 _When you'd scream I’d fight away all of your fears_ . . .  
 _And I’ve held your hand through all of these years_ . . .  
 _But you still have all of me_ . . .’

 

‘ _It’s so dark . . . I can’t see you . . . but I can feel you . . . InuYasha_ . . .’ Opening her eyes to gaze at the blurred world surrounding her, she saw nothing. The tears were too heavy, too daunting, flowing down her face as the remnants of so many dreams fell away.

Kagome adjusted her headphones. Trying to escape, trying to block out the sounds that reminded her all too well that the world was an ugly place, that the beauty of her world was gone . . . ‘ _Just beyond my reach . . . InuYasha . . . where are you? You promised me . . . you’d protect me . . . you promised me forever . . ._ ’

Vaguely she could hear Miroku calling her name. She turned up the volume on her Walkman; torturing herself with the songs that made her want to cry even more.

 _Miroku dragged her out of the well-house as she struggled to break away, to get back to it, to dig InuYasha out of the well . . . that’s where he was, wasn’t he? On the other side of that well . . . in the world that was closed to her_ . . .

“ _Let me go!_ ”

“ _Kagome! Stop! You can’t save him!” Miroku growled in her ear as he held her back. “Let him go!_ ”

“ _He’s not_ dead!” _she shrieked, pounding her fists against his chest. “He’s_ not!”

“ _You can’t fall apart, Kagome! InuYasha wouldn’t want that, and you know it!” Miroku insisted_.

“He’s—not—dead!” _she screeched again. “He’s not . . . he’s not . . .”_

 _Miroku pulled her into a fierce hug. He stifled her. She pushed against him but it was as though the very strength in her body was gone. Then came the sobs. Racking through her with a vengeance borne of the hurtful realization that InuYasha was trapped on the other side of the well, the agonizing revelation . . . he couldn’t get back to her_ . . .

 _She’d broken away as Miroku tried to soothe her. She’d somehow managed to pull away and had stumbled into her house_.

 _That had offered her no sense of comfort, either. She understood all too well, how he’d felt caged at times, how InuYasha had paced the floors as he tried to cope with her era . . . His journal lay on her desk.   With a small sob, she picked it up, touched the cover, stroked the spine, wishing that it was him, instead_.

 _Blinking back a fresh wave of tears, she opened the book, stared at the astonishingly neat handwriting—InuYasha’s words_.

‘I made a wish on that stone Kagome gave me. I wished that I’d have the courage to tell her how much she means to me, to tell her that I want to be with her forever. I’m not sure if I’m more scared to ask her to be my mate or that she’ll laugh at me, the worthless half-breed, the nothing hanyou. I’m not human. I’m not youkai. I’m nothing, but maybe, with Kagome . . . maybe I could be something. . .

‘I’ve watched her sleep a hundred times or more. She’s really something. I’m not sure if there are words to describe how she looks when she’s asleep. Like an angel, I guess? Like the feeling I get when I run through the forest with nothing but the wind in my face. That’s how she looks. Alive. But I wonder, does she know? Does she really have any idea just how beautiful she is to me? I’ve wanted to tell her that but I can’t. If I tell her that, if she realizes it for herself, won’t she also realize that I’m nothing but a waste of her time?’

 _With a sob muffled by the back of her hand, Kagome dropped the journal and grabbed her backpack before racing out of the house and sprinting toward the forest_. ‘A waste of my time? How could he ever think . . . how could he ever believe . . . InuYasha!’ _She had no real destination in mind, no inner voice that led her.   Blindly stumbling through the forest, unaware at branches that scraped against her, roots that tried to trip her, she ran as the pain in her heart deepened, as the ache in her soul threatened to overcome her completely_.

‘InuYasha . . . you promised me . . . you promised! _’ she wailed as she stumbled, as she fell. She blinked in surprise, staving back another sob. ‘_ It’s the tree . . . where InuYasha and I _. . .’ Another broken sob welled up, another stabbing pain, as though her body was crumbling apart from the inside with only her skin holding her together_ . . .

 _Kagome choked back another sob as she dug into her backpack, as she tried to force away the sound of Miroku’s voice calling her name. ‘_ Why did I grab this? _’ she wondered, staring at her backpack in an oddly disjointed way, as though she couldn’t stand to think of anything that would hurt . . . as though she could escape her pain by blocking it out. She found her walkman, stared at it as if she’d never seen one before. Closing her eyes against Miroku’s entreaties . . . ‘_ Don’t find me! I can’t . . . I won’t believe you! _’ She tugged the headphones over her head_.

.

‘ _You used to captivate me_ . . .  
 _By your resonating light_ . . .  
 _But now I’m bound by the life you left behind_ . . .  
 _Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams_ . . .  
 _Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me_. . .

 

 _These wounds won't seem to heal_ . . .  
 _This pain is just too real_ . . .  
 _There’s just too much that time cannot erase_ . . .’

 

.

‘ _Forever wasn’t long enough, InuYasha . . . Not even close . . ._ ’

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Something is troubling you.”

Sesshoumaru glanced at his mate with a barely perceptible shrug. “It’s nothing, I’m sure.”

Her look was matter-of-fact. She was used to Sesshoumaru’s silence, his introspection. Today, though, there had been something else, something far more troubling, as if the lingering doubt, the perception that something horrible was coming to pass . . . and Sesshoumaru felt it, too. “Don’t give me that. I know you, remember? What is it?”

Sesshoumaru stood and deliberately came around the desk to hug Leikizu, his smile thin, weak, troubled. “I assure you, Lei, there’s nothing—”

The mansion shook as though the very foundation, and Sesshoumaru tightened his hold on Leikizu. The sound of crystal skittering on a precarious ledge, the groaning creak of the swaying house . . . the tremors that ricocheted through the floor, up the walls, a wrenching fear, an ignoble dread . . . He leaned over Leikizu, sheltering her, protecting her as his eyes swept the room.

Leikizu gasped softly as she lifted her head off his chest to stare, wide eyed, at the fireplace . . . at the wooden box on the mantle. “Sesshoumaru . . .”

Golden eyes flying in the same direction as Leikizu’s stare, flaring wide as he straightened his back, as his mind refused to believe the truth of what he saw. “ _No_ ,” Sesshoumaru hissed as he stared at the box. No longer empty, it pulsed with energy, flowed in time with the contents. Letting go of Leikizu, he slowly approached, afraid to look, knowing in his heart what he would see and yet needing to know, having to be certain.

Nestled in the bed of crimson silk . . . Sesshoumaru winced, his breath as sharp as a winter gale as he reached out with a shaking hand, grasping the hilt, absently noting that the curse was, indeed, broken. He lifted it slowly as Leikizu’s eyes filled with tears.

“Tetsusaiga.”

Something thick, rancid rose in his throat. Anger, bitter and repulsive, rolled over him, crashed into him like the fall of a tidal wave. “There has to have been a mistake,” Leikizu said, her tone hopeful even as her expression dissolved in a wash of tears. “It can’t be . . . It can’t . . .”

With the pain borne of five hundred years, the resentment that he hadn’t been able to change a damn thing, the futility of the very hope that had sustained him, Sesshoumaru—the Inu no Taisho, the tai-youkai—the brother—threw his head back and howled.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Sango? Are you sleeping?”

Sango opened her eyes and smiled at the young kitsune who hovered in the doorway. “What’s wrong, Shippou?” she asked as she sat up with a grimace, patting the bed beside her.

Shippou walked over, shaking his head with his hands against his chest. He climbed up and frowned at Sango. The exterminator stared at the child, at his slumped shoulders, at his haunted eyes. “I don’t understand,” he said in a thin voice. “There’s something wrong.”

“With what?” Sango questioned, pushing Shippou’s hair out of his eyes.

Drawing a deep breath, Shippou opened his hands, showing Sango the fang necklace. “With . . . Papa’s fang.” The white fang was graying. Even her human eyes she could see it . . . dying?

“Shippou . . . ?”

The child shook his head, uttered a low whine as he struggled to hold back his rising upset, his youkai senses telling him that something had gone very wrong. “Does it mean . . . where is he?”

Sango opened her mouth to speak. The words lodged in her throat. She tried to reassure him with a hug. The kit choked out a sob as Sango closed her eyes against the intensity of loss, the all-too-familiar stab in her heart. ‘ _When youkai die, the remnants die, too . . . so if you cut off an arm, Sango, you must kill the entire beast or it will remain alive_ . . .’ Her father’s words haunted her. As much as she wished to believe otherwise, she knew, she’d faced it before. The spiral of life and death . . . the beginning and the end . . . and the loss of a dear, dear friend.

“Shippou . . .”

Biting back another sob, the kit suddenly pulled away, his little face contorting as he struggled not to cry. “Youkai don’t cry! He said so! InuYasha said . . . he said—”

Holding onto the last threads of a composure that she hadn’t realized she possessed, Sango’s voice was calm, consoling. “It’s all right to cry for a friend, Shippou, and it’s all right to cry for someone you love.”

Wincing as the child threw himself into her arms again, Sango felt his tears dampen her nightgown as her own tears coursed down her cheeks. The terrible sense of a world coming undone . . . was this the ultimate retribution for some perceived wrong? But when had InuYasha ever truly meant harm to anyone? Protecting those he loved with a fierceness, with a will backed by the power of his heart . . . and now . . . ? ‘ _Kagome . . . oh Kagome . . . InuYasha . . ._ ’

Suddenly Shippou gasped and leaned back. Staring down at the fang, his eyes rose to lock with Sango’s, and she stared, too. Wiping away her tears, she struggled to understand what it all meant . . .

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“ _Damn him!_ ”

Leikizu cringed at the sheer volume behind Sesshoumaru’s broken tone, shied away as he unleashed Tetsusaiga on the box, on the mantle. The deafening crash of splintering wood, the perverse sense that even his actions didn’t alleviate the consuming pain . . . Leikizu stepped back, unable to do more than watch as her mate turned the sword on the desk. Sparks flying as the blade met with the computer screen, the acrid stench of burning plastic as smoke rose from the desecrated remnants of a soul undone . . . . With a soft sob, she watched as her mate sank to his knees, leaning upon Tetsusaiga, as though he would fall if he didn’t.

She came forward, wrapping her arms around him. “You tried, Sesshoumaru! You tried, and—”

Golden eyes flashing red, flashing blood, flashing violence . . . flashing inexpressible pain . . . “And it wasn’t enough—not _nearly_ enough! Don’t you see? I failed him, and . . . I failed me.”

“No!” Leikizu countered, grasping his shoulders, desperate to make him see. “You didn’t! You—”

“I will find Norimitsu, and I swear upon Tetsusaiga I will avenge him, Lei.”

Leikizu turned Sesshoumaru’s face with gentle fingers. “Listen to me! Vengeance won’t fix this! What was meant to be was meant to be! But you did try, and for that, I’m so proud of you!”

Sesshoumaru’s face twisted into a cynical smile that was more of a grimace. “With that and my recriminations I can die in peace, Lei. I _failed_.”

“You cannot die!”

“And I cannot live!”

“Sesshoumaru!”

Shaking his head, his gaze challenged her. “For five hundred years have I sought to undo what I shouldn’t have let happen. For five hundred years, I fought to fix the wrongs that I could have prevented. They said that you can change your destiny, Lei. They lied.”

She started to argue with him. Opening her mouth to counter his claims, the throbbing pulse of Tetsusaiga cut her off. Eyes widening, she stared in incredulous wonder as the sword glowed in a sapphire light. Sesshoumaru stood up slowly, raising the sword before his face. With a sharp hiss, he tightened his grip against the searing hot burn that shot up his arm from his hand.

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

 

‘ _When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears_ . . .  
 _When you'd scream I’d fight away all of your fears_ . . .  
 _And I’ve held your hand through all of these years_ . . .  
 _But you still have all of me_ . . .

 

 _I’ve tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone_ . . .  
 _And though you're still with me_ . . .  
 _I’ve been alone all along_ . . .’

 

.

‘ _Why can’t I stop hurting?_ ’ Kagome wondered as she pressed her eyes against her raised knees, wishing the pain in her heart would subside, wishing that she didn’t feel so very alone, and yet knowing that the last thing she wanted or needed was the confining comfort of her friends, of the ones who believed that InuYasha really was gone. ‘ _I just want to . . . be with him_ . . .’

Why did the well cave in?

Kagome whimpered, wrapping her arms tighter around herself, realizing with a sickening pang that it was poor replacement for the feel of InuYasha’s embrace. ‘ _He always made me feel safe, and now . . . who will make_ him _feel that way? How will_ I _ever feel safe again?_ ’

More hot tears spilled over, coursing down her cheeks, down her legs as she keened softly, rocking back and forth, trying in vain to soothe herself, trying not to think, not to remember. His gentle smiles, his soft touches, the way his eyes glowed as he looked at her . . . the knowledge that she was absolutely protected, the gruff demeanor that hid the beauty of his heart . . . ‘ _He’s not dead . . . he can’t be dead . . . I’d know it if he were . . . I’d feel it . . ._ ’

‘ _No_ ,’ she thought as a sharp cry rose in her throat, strangling her, choking her, threatening to drive her crazy, ‘ _no, he’s just . . . five hundred years in the past . . . where I can’t reach him . . . where he can’t reach me . . . InuYasha . . ._ ’

He had overcome Kikyou’s arrow to be with her. He fought for her, saved her, loved her . . . ‘ _I just want to love him . . . and . . ._ ’ Closing her hands over her heart, pressing against her chest as though she could keep it from shattering all over, her eyes burned with tears unshed, with promises left broken, with the waning desire to get up, to go on slowly draining away from her.

“Kagome!” Miroku’s voice drifted to her. She winced, wrapped her arms tighter around herself . . . trying to hide from him? Trying to hide from the inevitable brutality of the realities he wanted her to face . . . “Kagome!”

Her body ached, her mind ached, her heart ached. Kagome leaned to the side, resting against the tree trunk. Staring at the first evening stars peeking down in the darkening sky through the matrix of branches, she stifled a sob as a shooting star streaked across the heavens. Closing her eyes, she sighed, heavy, broken. ‘ _Shooting star, wishing star . . . I wish . . . I want to see InuYasha’s face, just one more time . . ._ ’

“Kagome.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Sesshoumaru:  
> _** _::sniff sniff:: This Sexxhoumaru needs a hug_. . .


	86. The Phoenix

Pushing through the trees was a struggle. Vertigo still hung around him like a stupor that he couldn’t shake off. The cloying darkness that had tried to crush him wouldn’t release his soul, like a parasite that just wouldn’t let go.

Confusion as daunting as a frigid winter wind cut through him. It was good to breathe free air and yet the pervasive aura of sadness, as though the very earth was mourning . . . as though _she_ was mourning . . .

‘ _Kagome_.’

That one word, that one name, that one brightness, his shooting star. Shaking his head to clear the haziness from his mind, he stumbled forward, his instinct guiding him as his other senses failed.

 _Buried in the blackness, in the stifling dirt . . . caught between two worlds where nothing made sense, where nothing else existed . . . how long had he been suspended there, lost in a void of nothing? How long had he lain dormant, unable to make sense of the basest of thought? Until the oblivion of unconscious had taken him, until he had seen that face . . . and he told him_ . . .

He scratched his head as he tried to remember the whispered words. They were dim, soft, no more than a whisper in his clouded mind . . .

‘ _Did you find her?_ ’

‘ _Yes_.’

‘ _Will you protect her?_ ’

‘ _Yes_.’

‘ _Do you love her?_ ’

‘ _Yes_.’

 _The deep chuckle, the golden eyes that burned bright, burned with an inner light. ‘Then what are you doing here? You must fight for her_.’

‘. . . _Yes_.’

 _The flash of pain as he awoke, crushed by earth, torn by centuries. Feeling the blood pulsing in his veins, the hot rush as his youkai gained strength. Too much sensation dulled by too little strength to fight, and slowly the rushing tide, the swelling mists, his youkai_ . . .

 _Did it matter, how he’d managed to claw his way out of the earth? Did it matter that his hands were bloody, rent? Breaking free of the earthen constraints, the rush of air was a humbling thing, and he’d fallen to the ground, drawing in stunted breaths. Hard to reconcile himself to the freedom, one word brought him to his knees, to his feet_. . .

‘ _Kagome_.’

Into the forest, into the dark as evening shadows fell. A sound—a voice? A man, calling the name . . . the name _he_ cherished . . . He growled. The voice was familiar. Instinct told him the voice belonged to a friend. Friend or foe, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Kagome. He’d reach her, he’d find her . . . and through her, he would be reborn . . .

The voice came closer, drawing nearer. A low snarl, a vicious warning ripped through the air, halted the one giving chase. “InuYasha? Oh, kami, is that you?”

‘ _Miroku_ ,’ he thought, shaking his head as an angry buzzing engulfed his mind. “Get . . . back . . . !” he snarled without stopping.

The smell of Miroku’s alarm penetrated his clouded brain. “What’s happened to you?”

“Ka . . . gome . . .”

Miroku shot forward, grabbed InuYasha’s arm. “InuYasha, no! You’ll hurt her!”

With an enraged snarl, InuYasha threw off the monk. “ _Never!_ ” he growled.

Miroku stumbled back and fell then stared at him for a long moment. As though understanding what was in InuYasha’s heart, he nodded once. “Be careful, InuYasha . . .” he warned as he slowly stood, the trace of a smile touching the edges of his lips. “She’s just a pathetic human.”

Issuing a grunt of acknowledgement, InuYasha staggered deeper into the forest as Miroku turned back toward the shrine.

‘ _Heart . . . can’t beat . . . without her . . ._ ’ The buzzing in his head subsided, the waning of the interference waning. Attuned to the forest around him, his youkai knew where she was, where she waited . . .

Pushing into the dense foliage, the scent of her tears breaking through everything else. Why did she weep?

A low, savage growl, a surge of raw anger, his youkai lashed out viciously, ‘ _Mate cry . . . must stop_ . . . _No one harms . . . Kagome_. . .’

He leaned on Tetsusaiga to steady himself. He stared at the sword in his hand, the mist of red blurring the edges of his vision. ‘ _Tessaiga . . . hurts_ . . .’ he realized as he tightened his grip on the sword. Meant to repress his youkai blood . . . trying to contain him even now . . . yet his youkai blood fought against it, and in the fissure where the wills clashed was borne an intense pain.

His father’s voice echoed through his head, the calm voice, the strong tone, ‘ _Then what are you doing here? You must fight for her . . ._ ’

The struggle with his youkai blood . . . the fight to climb out of the collapsed well . . . the combination of the scent of his blood and Kagome’s tears . . . blood on his hands . . . ‘ _Kagome_ . . .’

She was there. Lying under the tree where he’d first staked his claim, she had her eyes closed, the softness of her body calling to the youkai within him. ‘ _Mine . . . my mate . . ._ ’

Her eyes opened; she stared at the sky as tears fell from her eyes, streaking her face, liquid diamonds in the waning light. Her lips moved as she made her wish on the star that streaked the sky overhead. Summoning the last vestiges of humanity in him, he said her name.

“Kagome.”

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Her heart stopped as a painful swelling in her chest broke open. Daring to hope, wishing upon something that she couldn’t give voice to, she stared, unblinking, untroubled, unafraid. “InuYasha . . . ?” she whispered, lips trembling, eyes still bright with the remnants of tears. He dropped to his knees beside her. The jagged violet streaks on his face drew her fingertips. Tracing over them with gentle fingers, trying to believe that he was real, that he was there . . .

Trembling on the cusp of a precarious control, he shuddered under her caress, closed his crimson eyes as though willing back something savage, something that battled within his soul. A low growl as he nudged against her hand, her tears falling like jewels as the moon rose above . . .

‘ _He’s youkai, but . . . he doesn’t seem dangerous_ ,’ she mused. “What happened?” she asked, brushing dirt off his cheeks, off his nose, off his lips.

“No . . . talk . . .” he rasped, eyes still closed as she continued to brush away the grime. “Mine . . . Kagome.”

“Yours,” she repeated, her voice a whisper, a sigh.

He reached for her, dragged her against him, barely contained brutality as his shaking hands wrapped around her. She gasped as his mouth crushed hers, the searing burn of his lips took her breath away. The insistent contact sent tremors coursing through her, the volatile eruption of an instinctive need. Fangs raking against her lips as shivers broke over her, she accepted his will as her own, welcomed his stroking hands, extended her aura to cosset him. His touch meant to soothe her ignited her passion instead. The growls meant to calm her drew her onto her knees as she took possession of the kiss. Her hands on his face, she bent him to her resolve as his youkai fought against the domination, against the war of two beings with one ultimate desire.

His claws raked up against her sides, down along her back as she leaned closer to him. Close enough to feel his heart hammering against his ribcage was still not close enough. Tugging at his haori, he seemed to understand.   She gasped as his claws ripped away her clothes as she pushed his undershirt away.

Standing up to remove his pants, jerking at the knot that held his hakama closed, Kagome pushed his hands away as she stood. Growling at her in the moonlight, he started to reach for his ties again. “Yours,” Kagome murmured, placing his hands on her waist. “Mine,” she explained as she worked the knot free. He grunted in abject disapproval but let her finish her task. “If I’m yours,” she told him as she discarded the remaining clothing, “then you’re mine . . . right?”

Her answer was another growl as he jerked her roughly against his chest, against his body, gaze fierce, wanton. “ _All_ mine,” he rumbled as he claimed her lips again.

Crumbling against him, unable to stand as he demolished her resolve, he caught her, held her, forced her head back as he dropped his mouth to her throat. A strangled gasp, a rasping cry, a reaching pulse that fluttered under his lips, he lifted her against him, his body creating one thorough caress. She shook as he raised her higher, elbows against her hips, hands supporting her back. Searing mouth latching onto her breast as she cried out, as her fingernails dug into his shoulders. Nuzzling his way between her breasts, he growled viciously, as though he were guarding his territory, as though he were warning off anyone who dared to intrude.

Lost in the rapidly-escalating vortex of sensation, Kagome’s mind spun away from her. Faster than coherent thought could form, InuYasha whisked it away with his unabashed perusal, with his deliberate search. Consumed by the need to taste every inch of her body, the slow torment left her weak, boneless, liquid to his touch. She couldn’t summon the strength to resist, couldn’t think of a single reason why she would want to. Opening her eyes, staring at the full moon, basking in the heat of InuYasha’s body against hers, she delighted in the scorch of his lips, the heat of his breath, the primitive feel of his fangs, the balmy comfort of his tongue . . . Playing over her flesh, moans and whimpers were unanswered as he broke down any sense of her and merged her emotions into his own.

Lowering her slowly, her body sliding against his, her feet barely touched the ground before he scooped her up and laid her down, comfortable on a nest of soft grass with the smell of the earth surrounding her. Arching against him as the warmth of his body called to her, she willed him to understand what she needed. Her hands sought the silk of his skin as his mouth drew upon hers. Demanding, insistent, his youkai hadn’t diminished. She kissed him back, matching his fervor with a hunger of her own, her hands tracing crests and vales, drawing deeper growls from him as he nipped at her, a warning that only served to goad her further.

Rising up on his hands, trailing wet kisses down her throat, over her collarbone, in the gentle hollow between her breasts, he moved with a purpose, a destination. She writhed under him, incoherent half-words that were lost behind a myriad of gasps and moans, sighs and whimpers. Kissing her hips, squeezing her breasts as he reached under her thighs and captured her in his palms, his crimson eyes glowed with an unearthly light as he lowered his mouth to consume her. Mind too scattered to make sense of the sudden heat, the blinding intensity as a need so fierce wrapped around her and squeezed. She cried out his name, and if he heard her broken pleadings, he ignored her as her body trembled and shook, as her head tilted back, as she moaned, cried, keened into the night.

An explosion of light as the constricting bands of emotion snapped, a guttural cry wrenched from the deepest recess of her soul, the knowledge that he was her body’s release. A wave of heat, a central burn as the teasing pressure, the flick of his tongue sent her spiraling down only to catch her, lift her up, sending her soaring, setting her free.

As the world fell away leaving sensation behind, as the gentle tide of oblivion subsided, Kagome found herself being caught up once more, driven harder, faster, as InuYasha surged inside her. Body against body, heart to heart, the culmination of heat and need, of love lost then found once more compelled him, provoked him. Meeting him with her movements, matching her body to his, his growls gave way to harsh whines, whimpers as he fought to hold back the inevitable joining.

Goading her along, a paradox in motion, InuYasha’s savage growls merged with Kagome’s whimpers, her moans. The crush of his body on hers created a combustion, a centrifugal compulsion as sorrow faded, leaving behind a repletion of flesh on flesh, of need on need . . . of two hearts that beat together as one. Straining inside her, his youkai quickened, markings gaining intensity, darkening, deepening, growing, swelling. Amassing a pain so deep, so provoking, promising a tide of pleasure so close she could feel it, so far that she couldn’t attain it.

His body quaked against hers, delicious tremors that touched her deep as they clung to the pinnacle. Throwing his head back, rending a cry that pierced the night, he rose against her like a phoenix from the ashes, forcing her higher, plunging her further into the pervasive whiteness, the agonizing pleasure as she called out his name. Reborn in each other’s embrace, the peace of the forest surrounded them both as they lay, twined together, the merging of souls to create a new life.

“I don’t know how you came back, but I’m so glad you did,” Kagome said softly, stroking InuYasha’s hair and back.

Leaning up on his elbow, he stared down at her, expression solemn, golden lights highlighting the eyes she loved. “Kagome . . .” She pushed his bangs out of his eyes, caressed his cheeks—now pale and flawless, streaked with sweat, all traces of his youkai markings gone. “It’s . . .”

“The full moon,” she finished with a slight smile. “I know.”

“But we promised—”

Kagome pushed herself up on her elbows, kissed him to silence him. He moaned softly. “I know . . . I don’t think she’ll be too angry.”

He didn’t look pacified. His scowl darkened as he rolled away. “Keh! How can you possibly be so calm about this? Your mother already hates me, and now—”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

“Keh! I might as well move into Goshinboku . . . or I could move in with that bastard till your mother decides she doesn’t want to cut off my head . . . or whatever else she might decide to hack off me.”

Kagome couldn’t suppress the giggle that escaped her as InuYasha turned to glower at her in the semi-darkness. “I doubt she’d do that,” she argued. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He paused as he dragged on his hakama. “Tell you what?”

Even in the darkness he could still sense her embarrassed smile. “That when you’re fully transformed that everything gets . . . bigger?”

Feeling the heat of a distinct flush creep up his own skin, he still grinned anyway. “Does it?”

She didn’t answer but her smile widened just a little.

“Keh. I’m filthy,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

Standing up and reaching for his hand, Kagome retrieved her backpack and dragged the reluctant hanyou toward the clearing—toward the pond. She rummaged around in the bag until she found the unscented shampoo and soaps as InuYasha stripped off his hakama once more and waded out into the water.

Kagome followed him into the water and sank down against a rock. Holding her hand out to him, he reluctantly sank down before her as she started rubbing the soap over his back. She sighed. “Tell me how you got back here?”

Eyes closing as the soothing feel of her hands gliding over his skin reminded him how bone-weary he truly was, InuYasha had to force himself to remember her question. “I don’t know . . . I talked to Miroku, then Myouga showed up. He said that I had to get through the well before it was too late.”

He frowned, recalling Myouga’s last cryptic words. ‘ _Live long with Kagome-sama . . . So long as . . . protect her . . . Tetsusaiga, she’ll . . . goodbye!_ ’ What had he meant?

“And then the well collapsed,” she supplied quietly. A trembling in her hands said everything that she didn’t as she leaned against his back, her cheek against his shoulder. “I was scared,” she admitted in a little voice. “So scared.”

A sarcastic reply formed on his lips. When he turned his torso to stare at her, the words died away. Moonlight reflected in her eyes, the telling moisture that gathered under the scent of her tears . . . InuYasha leaned back, kissed her softly. “So was I,” he admitted quietly. “But I had to come back for you.”

“How did you come back?”

He shook his head, turning away from her as she started lathering his hair, taking extra care with his ears. He smiled. “The well collapsed when I jumped in . . . I don’t know, exactly . . . I remember seeing the light of the time slip, but I don’t remember much else. I must have blacked out or something, and . . . I saw my . . . my old man . . .”

“Your father?”

InuYasha nodded, his low rumble issuing because of her gentle ministrations. “He asked me . . . if I’d found you, if I was going to fight for you, and he said to go back . . . The next thing I knew, I was digging myself out of the well, and it was all kind of blurry. I guess I’d transformed.” Another suspicion arose in him, a dark foreboding, a question he was afraid to ask because he feared the answer. “Did I . . . I didn’t . . . hurt you?”

“No.”

A flood of relief washed over him, and InuYasha heaved a sigh. “You’d tell me if I did . . . ?”

“Probably not,” she answered lightly. “You never tell me when I hurt you, either. You didn’t, though, so don’t think you did.”

“I ought to tweak you for giving me an answer like that,” he grumbled.

“Okay, rinse,” Kagome demanded as her hands dropped from his hair.

He complied but came up shaking. Kagome squealed and swished her arm over the top of the water, splashing him in the face. “Oi! Sneaky wench wants to play, do you?” he growled as he lunged at her. She squealed again as he flattened his ears and caught her, bringing her up against his chest as his lips sought out hers, drinking in the water on her lips, breathing in her scent, powerful, intoxicating, wholly Kagome.

“Let me finish washing you,” she offered, biting her lower lip as she reached for the soap again. InuYasha stifled a groan but let her continue.

It was too much, to see her small hands dragging the bar of soap over his chest and to feel it, too. Her hands trembled as they glided over him. His skin seemed to flow into her. The feel, the absolute sensation sent shivers up and down his spine. Her hands held a strange power over him, an impetuous transcendence of flesh and emotion.

Skin bathed blue in the moonlight, a strange current of her body that spoke to him. A heat that reached him through her fingers playing against him. He caught her hands, twined his fingers in hers, pulled her closer. “That’s enough,” he rasped out.

Eyes locking in the moonlight, gold and brown met and sparked. A glowing coal in the darkness, a subtle fire that lit, caught, burned. Intensifying as her hands reached out to lather him more, her hands shaking as they disappeared under the surface of the water. A savage growl as she touched him, hesitantly at first, but her hands steadied as her courage grew. The sudden ache of longing, the fire that roared to life under her touch was almost painful, and he gasped, eyes closing, head falling back.

Kagome caught her breath, a soft whisper of air, as she jerked her hands away. “Did I hurt you?”

“Keh,” he managed though the sound was strangled. “You can’t hurt me.”

“But you—”

“I changed my mind, wench. Wash me all you want.”

She giggled, her cheeks pinking. Her smile suddenly faded though, and she sat back as her chin dropped, her gaze skittering away, the shift in her aura a very real thing. “I would have died if you didn’t come back,” she whispered. “I would have—”

“Don’t talk that way. I’ll always come back,” he growled, unable to listen to her, unable to face her upset. “I told you. You’re strong—stronger than I’ll ever be.”

“InuYasha . . .”

He sighed. “You talk too much, wench. Are you going to finish washing me or not?”

Slowly her smile resurfaced, and she moved in closer. “Are you sure?”

“Kiss me, and I’ll show you,” he countered as he reached for her. Her giggle turned into a sigh as his lips found hers. Pulling her against him until she was straddling his thighs, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close. ‘ _Home_ ,’ he thought through his Kagome-induced delirium.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and he pulled back, dragging his mouth away as Kagome whimpered and leaned against him. “Kagome?”

“What?”

If the question plaguing him wasn’t so important, he might have laughed outright at her petulant answer. He smiled then frowned. “Can we do this?”

She leaned away with a frown of her own and shook her head. “Do what?”

He could feel his face flaming as she stared at him. Ears drooping slightly as he struggled to make her understand, InuYasha sighed inwardly. “You know,” he grumbled. “ _This_. If you’re pregnant now . . . I don’t want to hurt the pup.”

His feeling of complete stupidity escalated when she giggled. “And you think _I_ talk too much? It’s fine, InuYasha . . . it says so in all the books.”

He shot her a suspicious glance. “Are you sure?”

A hurt expression surfaced on her face, and InuYasha frowned. “You think I’d endanger a baby? _Our_ baby? And how do you know I’m pregnant.”

He made a face. “Because we . . .” With a sudden grin, he pulled her close again. “I don’t know, wench. Let me smell you.”

It was Kagome’s turn to blush. “You can’t smell that,” she argued but looked worried, “can you?”

“Keh. I can smell everything about you, wench. You didn’t know that? Like now. You want me. I can _smell_ you.”

She rolled her eyes. “InuYasha?”

“Hmm?” he asked as he nuzzled against her neck.

“Let me finish your bath.”

“Kagome?”

She grinned and giggled, leaning her head toward him as she tried to escape the tickling of his breath on her skin. “Yes?”

“Can we stay here? In the forest?”

“How long?”

“Till the pup is at least . . . fifty.”

She giggled again. “You’re not really that afraid of my mother, are you?”

“Keh!” he snorted. “I’m not afraid . . . but . . . if she’s like you she can _yell_ . . .”

“InuYasha?”

“What?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“Oi, wench! You can’t tell me—”

Her kiss cut him off, the magic of her lips blossoming under his as she ran her hands along his shoulders, down his chest. Arms reaching up to cradle her, he let her take what she wanted. Warm and alive in his embrace, she surged against him like the tide, the pull of her body a draw on his. Her fragrance reached around him, soothing him as she deepened her kiss. Running her tongue against his fangs, a little tremor running through her body as she rose up out of the water, her mouth dragging away only to fall against his throat. Every shudder, every breath she managed to draw, even the flutter of her eyelids added to the mounting tension deep inside him, the need to have her, the need to dominate or be dominated, it didn’t matter which.

Her body, poised above his, was a cruel insanity. He whimpered softly, tugging on her hips, the heat of her teased him through the veil of water. The savage yearning mocked him as she lingered so near but not near enough. If she understood his need she deliberately ignored it. He growled in frustration as her mouth sought out his in a kiss that left him reeling.

The violent meeting of his lust and her exploration as she deliberately took her time fluttering kisses across his shoulders, over his chest with an ache bone deep inside as he held her so close, as he burned to be closer . Fingers splayed, torturing him with her touch along his ribs, his sides, over the rippling muscles in his back, he fought for control of his ragged lust, his aching body that craved hers desperately. “Damn it, wench, you’re trying to kill me,” he accused as her mouth delved lower, closing over his nipple as he growled.

“I wouldn’t do that,” she assured him, peeking up at him through her eyelashes without raising her chin. He looked away before he gave in to the desire to drag her down on him. Letting her drive him with a maddening rush of power as she held power, wanton abandon rushed and ebbed, flowed with the consistency of a fabrication in time as she fed on him. Extreme hunger, overpowering seduction combined in him, his voracious need to consume all that was her driving away the will to surrender.

“Keh.”

But she pressed against him, her breasts rubbing against his chest as she kissed his neck again, lips lingering over his pulse. The feel of her wet skin on his was enough to wring another whine from him, the sound of his misery, the sound he couldn’t hold back. Her hands slid down into the water, wrapped around him. He growled into the night, pushing past the bounds that his body could withstand. The encompassing knowledge that she was controlling him didn’t sway him nearly as much as the need to allow her what she desired. It was that wish that stilled his hands when he wanted to reach for her. “Kagome,” he whispered into her hair. Her answer was a gentle squeeze. He whined.

His passion fueled hers. Her scent spiraled out of control, a raging wildfire that caught and spread. An endless cycle with no beginning, no end, he dug his claws into the silky sand as he fought to contain the rampant ache. Reaching out, cradling her face in his hands, kissing her with all the gentleness he could muster, she sighed against him. The kiss meant to calm him only added to the fervor, added to the yearning as the tender gesture became so much more.

The intricacies of her body melded into his, the curves of her flesh fit perfectly against him. Her arms came up, her hands gripped his shoulders as though she were afraid to let go, as though she feared losing him to the crush of time. Running his hands over her body, navigating the map of skin that was Kagome, she arched into his hands as he massaged her breasts, as he nipped her lips. Plundering, persuading, her mouth gave way to the intrusion of his tongue. Sliding his hand into the water, gathering retribution for the deliberate attack on his body, InuYasha took no pity on her, touching her as she swelled against him, as her head fell back, as she gasped his name over and over. Her voice was a song to him, her heart the rhythm, her body sang the words that no human ears could hear. Straining in his arms, body writhing as she struggled to find repletion, Kagome begged him with her soft moans, pleaded with him in her stunted breathing.

“Sit down, Kagome,” he whispered in her ear, his voice harsh, raspy. She managed to cast him a confused glance, eyelids heavy, passion tremendous behind the ashy perfection of her gaze. Grasping her hips in his hands, he pulled her down slowly, gently, as her body convulsed, her eyes flashing open as skin darkened in a beautiful flush. She enveloped him in a blazing heat, a searing brand that scorched the night. He moaned something but he wasn’t sure what, his mind blanking as he struggled to keep from coming undone.

A union of her aura with his youki, a cresting rise of undulating flesh, she kissed him as her body trembled, finding a cadence that matched their beating hearts. As shocking as bolts of lighting touching the ground, the inundation of pleasure that coursed through him was blunted by the driving need to possess her, all of her, just as she possessed him. She spoke to him with her silent cries, she soothed him with her rising pace.

She slid against him, a delicious friction, her body combining with his as she struggled to find her stride. Powerless to stop her, he reveled in the tremors, the delicate quivering in her limbs as she clung to him. Bridging the chasm between tactile and pure sensation, they met in the middle as the bridge swayed, reverberated, threatened to pitch them into the abyss below. Pushing her limits as her body tightened around him, the rise and fall of her hips created a visceral heat, a flowing energy, a pulse of light that dispelled the darkness. The center of his world was Kagome . . .

Somewhere between the two of them, somewhere between the muffled promises of forever, her body racked with a million pulsations surrounding him in her heated flood. She called out his name, echoing off the trees of the surrounding forest, splitting the serenity of the night. She dragged him off the precarious bridge and into the dark as he called out her name, as he tightened his hold on her, on Kagome, on his heart.

It seemed like hours before he trusted himself to speak. Nestled against him, cradled to his chest, Kagome didn’t seem like she was in any hurry to move, either. “What are you thinking?” he finally managed to ask.

She giggled as she snuggled closer. “Lots of things,” she remarked. “Shippou is going to be thrilled.”

He groaned. Not that he didn’t think Shippou would be thrilled, but he really could think of one person who wasn’t going to be, and facing her, admitting the truth . . . he groaned again. “Kagome . . .”

“Hmm?”

“. . . Do you think . . . Do we have to tell her? I mean, what if you’re not . . . ?”

Leaning away from him, she pinned him with a narrow-eyed look. “I thought you said you could tell by my scent.”

InuYasha’s ears twitched. “Well . . . eventually,” he lied with a wince that he hoped she didn’t catch. She was. He _could_ smell it on her . . .

“Why do you want to wait?” she asked suspiciously.

He shrugged, hoping for nonchalance. “No reason in _particular_ . . . Just thought we’d keep it to ourselves awhile . . . Sango and Miroku haven’t really had a chance to get over losing their pup, and—”

“And since when do you go out of your way to not rub Miroku’s nose in stuff?”

“Keh! Make me sound like a real ass, why don’t you?” he grumbled, adding a little pout for good measure.

Kagome rested her cheek on his shoulder again. “You’re lying. I know you are. But if you don’t want to tell anyone for awhile, it’s okay. You do realize we won’t be able to hide it long.”

“Long enough,” he grouched.

“Long enough for what?”

“Long enough for me to build a house out here in case your mother decides that she’s going to try to separate us . . . or take my pup.”

Kagome gasped and sat up again. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

He refused to meet her gaze. “It’ll be a hanyou,” he said quietly, ears drooping, “and we . . . we broke our promise.”

He really was worried about that. The slightly defeated look in his eyes, the guarded frown that drew his eyebrows together . . . Kagome smoothed back his bangs, kissed his forehead, tried to offer him the reassurance that he so desperately needed. “InuYasha, I got a letter—”

“No!” he cut in, a sudden surge of protectiveness rushing over him. “No one is taking you away, and no one is touching my pup.”

“ _Our_ baby will be fine, and—”

“Just listen to me on this, Kagome.”

She sighed. “. . . Okay.”

He pulled her back against his chest, cradling her against him, cradling the newly formed life between them. She sighed again as he lifted his chin to stare at the full moon. In the misty light, the brightness that bathed them both, he grinned just a little, the edges of his fear subsiding.

The moon smiled back.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from InuYasha:  
> _ ** _I’ll be taking up residence in Goshinboku . . . Forward all my calls, will ya . . . ?_


	87. Minor Adjustments

Kagome moaned and let her forehead drop against her arm. Leaning over the toilet, she didn’t have the strength to stand.   Everything made her sick. Waking up had become a practice on getting herself into the bathroom before she had a chance to throw up. Two days into it, and Kagome was starting to worry that she’d never be able to even think about food again.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Lifting her head up, Kagome forced a smile at the kitsune. “I’ll be fine, Shippou.”

The child didn’t look like he believed her. With a marked frown, he shook his head slowly. “You’ve been sick a lot the last couple of days. I’ll go get Grandma—”

“No!” Kagome called after Shippou.

He stopped and shot her a quizzical glance. “Why not? She can help you, can’t she?”

“It’s just a stomach bug,” she lied. “Anyway, there’s no use in worrying her. I’m fine, I promise.”

Shippou made a face. “You smell different.”

“Back off, runt,” InuYasha remarked gruffly but gently as he stepped up behind the kitsune. “Ain’t your tutor supposed to be here soon?”

“InuYasha . . .” Kagome began.

Shippou giggled and ran off.

“Is it bad?” he asked, ears drooping as he awkwardly rubbed her back. He winced when she offered him a weak smile.

“Not so bad,” she lied.

He snorted. “Keh! You’re lying. Come on. You’re going back to bed, wench.”

“I can’t,” she argued. “I have exams, and—”

“And you’re getting sick every time you turn around. Bed.”

Pulling herself up on the sink and digging around for her toothbrush, Kagome sighed. “I can’t skip the exams, InuYasha. They’re very important.”

“More important than my pup?” he challenged.

That earned him a scathing look. “Of course not,” she assured him. “But they are important.”

He waited until she was finished brushing her teeth before he grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the bedroom. Arms crossed over his chest, he pointed at the bed and ignored her protests. “You stay there, or else,” he warned as she rolled her eyes and climbed onto the bed. “I mean it . . . .”

“Where are you going?” she asked, taking note of the jeans and shirt he wore. Though he still wore his fire rat clothing around the shrine, he’d taken to wearing modern clothes if he was leaving the grounds.

He snorted in answer, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly. “It doesn’t matter. It won’t take long.”

“Promise me you’re not going to look for trouble.”

“Keh! Like I ever do.”

“Promise me.”

He sighed. “Promise me you’ll stay in bed.”

“I promise I’ll stay in bed,” she allowed, ‘ _until you leave_.’

“You can leave off the ‘until I leave’ part that I know you added in that beautiful head of yours,” he shot back.

She grinned. “Beautiful?”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes as he quickly kissed her. “I mean it, wench! If I find out you’ve been out of bed . . . .”

She rolled her eyes as he strode out of the room. Throwing back the blankets, she sat up and leaned forward to peek out the window. With a small shriek, she jerked back as InuYasha hopped through the window. “I knew you’d try that, sneaky wench!” he accused.

“Don’t do that!” she grumbled, clutching her chest to hold in her wildly beating heart. “You’re going to give me a heart attack!”

“Keh! If you’d stay in bed, you wouldn’t be in danger of having a heart attack.”

“Oh . . . !”

Standing over her with his arms crossed over his chest, he glowered down at her. She glared back. “Don’t make me tweak you,” he warned.

She sighed. “Seriously, I’ll be no further than my desk, I promise. I do have to do these exams, and—”

InuYasha shook his head. “All right,” he agreed grudgingly. “Just promise me you’ll lie down if it gets any worse?”

She finally grinned. “Okay.”

He didn’t look happy but he did kiss her forehead and strode out of the room again.

Kagome groaned softly as soon as she was sure that InuYasha was out of earshot. She felt horrible. To be completely honest, she felt like she wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep through the next nine months. Unfortunately she did have to take her exams, and with so much more riding on them now, she couldn’t allow her body to distract her from the task at hand.

Turning on her computer just before she dashed for the bathroom again, Kagome wretched pitifully as she dropped to her knees in front of the toilet. Shaking her head as she closed her eyes and willed back the waves of nausea, she sighed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. ‘ _It’s going to be a long pregnancy_ ,’ she thought with a rueful moan as she dug out her toothbrush again. ‘ _A_ very _long pregnancy_ . . . .’

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Staring over the manicured lawn, the well-kept gardens with a cup of coffee in his bandaged hand, Sesshoumaru didn’t wince at the painful reminder of his moments of uncharacteristic rage.

 _Tetsusaiga pulsed in his hand, the burn of the curse returning to the blade. A hiss of pain as he tightened his grip, he wasn’t sure if he was willing Tetsusaiga to return to where it belonged or if he was simply hoping against hope that his actions had not been in vain. With a flash of light, the sword disappeared, and he had stared at his blistered hand in amazement_.

“ _Tetsusaiga,” Leikizu whispered, her hands covering her mouth_.

 _Closing his eyes against the very real sting, the odd burn behind his gaze, Sesshoumaru nodded once. ‘It is as it should be . . . Tetsusaiga . . . in the hands of the one who should have it_.’

A slight smile as he brushed aside the close-call. In the controlled world that he knew best, Sesshoumaru’s smile diminished as he shook his head. “Too close, InuYasha . . . .” he murmured. Eyes cool, demeanor composed, lifting the mug to his lips, he sighed, as a resurgence of long-suppressed memories came.

_It had started with the Shikon no Tama. Foolish as they were, the baka and his miko had fought over something trivial and in the heated rush of anger, InuYasha had made the wish that had led to their destruction_.

“ _Will you just shut the fuck up, bitch? I’m not chasing after Kikyou! She’s dead, or weren’t you there?   Damn, don’t you ever stop talking?_ ”

“ _You want me to stop talking? Fine, baka!_ ”

“ _Keh! As if you’ll do it! Hell, Kagome, I don’t think you know how! I wish you’d learn to keep your fucking mouth closed!_ ”

 _It was just the beginning of the end. Staring at the jewel as it reacted to his ‘wish’, in stunned silence as the swirling colors faded, as the white light flashed brighter and brighter, as the jewel exploded into a cloud of glittering dust. If the miko spoke again after that, Sesshoumaru didn’t know, but he was sure that she never said another word to his baka half-brother_.

 _The kitsune’s demise had been a painful thing for them. Watching from the shadows of the forest, Sesshoumaru had frowned, wondering how it could be that a youkai child could inspire tears from the human emotion of grief. Norimitsu had come to kill the miko. The kitsune had foolishly tried to fight the greater youkai, and he paid for it with his life_.

 _The blast of holy energy had sent Norimitsu fleeing to save himself, but she had been too late. By the time she reached the mangled body of the young one, he was dead_.

 _The salt in the miko’s tears had floated to him in the breeze. Her silent cries were racked with sorrow, with grief over the life of the child she’d considered her own. When the others found her hours later, she had no tears left. Her body shook with the force of her sobs, yet no sound was uttered. Her unvoiced wails had horrified him, tormented him. They were the precursor of the tears to come, of a legacy of blood and death that had spun out of control_.

“Father? Uncle’s here.”

Sesshoumaru shook himself out of his reverie and nodded once to acknowledge Nibori’s announcement. “Show him to the study.”

“The study?” Nibori echoed. “But—”

“Yes, the study. It’s time I told that baka what he nearly destroyed.”

Taking his time drinking the remaining coffee, Sesshoumaru set the mug on the small table before he turned away from the windows and headed for the door. InuYasha stood in the middle of the wreckage blinking in mild disbelief at the complete annihilation of the once opulent room.

“Someone piss you off?” InuYasha asked, sensing Sesshoumaru’s presence without turning to look.

“You could say that.”

“Keh. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“On the contrary. Every man can reach his limits.”

Slowly turning to face him, InuYasha’s eyes narrowed as he stared at him. “What’d you do to your hand?”

With a careless shrug, Sesshoumaru crossed the floor to sit in the overstuffed chair—one of the few pieces he hadn’t ravaged in his tirade. “Tetsusaiga rejected me.”

“When did you have _my_ Tetsusaiga?”

Stares locking, challenging, Sesshoumaru didn’t look away. “When you died.”

InuYasha stepped back, eyes widening in surprise. “When I _what?_ ”

“What happened to you the other night?”

Shaking his head, InuYasha’s frown deepened. “The well collapsed . . . .” Surveying the debris again, InuYasha slowly turned his head to assess his brother once more. “Keh! You did all this because you thought I was _dead?_ Who are you fucking kidding, you bastard?”

Shooting to his feet and stalking toward InuYasha with a menacing glint in his cold gaze, he stopped inches away to say, “This _bastard_ is the one who has been seeking to correct _your_ arrogant mistakes for the last five hundred years!”

“What?”

Reining in his emotions, Sesshoumaru turned his back on InuYasha. “It started with the foolish wish you made on the Shikon no Tama, then the death of your kitsune. Like a feather thrown into the face of the wind, it was futile, unstoppable. There wasn’t a thing anyone could do to stop it, and in the end, everyone you cared about suffered. Mark my words, InuYasha. If you’re not careful, you’ll lose everything.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Sesshoumaru deliberately ignored InuYasha’s question as he rounded on his brother again, wrinkling his nose in distain. “Ugh . . . you didn’t . . . .” Making a show of sniffing again, Sesshoumaru grimaced in open abhorrence. “Kami, you _did_.”

“Did what?” InuYasha asked, glowering at him, the warning in his tone obvious.

“You impregnated the miko . . . .”

InuYasha’s back stiffened, fangs showing in a flash of a snarl. “Don’t you fucking say one word against her, you bastard . . . or about my pup.”

“I could care less if you sire an army, baka. Let’s just pray they _all_ take after the miko.”

“Since when have you taken a liking to Kagome?”

Sesshoumaru waved his hand dismissively. “One doesn’t have to like someone to know that they’re too good for the likes of you, baka. She must be a saint, to deal with your intolerable tirades.”

“I’ll show you ‘intolerable’, Sesshoumaru,” InuYasha snarled as he drew Tetsusaiga. “Bend over, will you?”

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Put that away, baka. Why did you seek me out?”

“I didn’t,” InuYasha growled as he dropped Tetsusaiga into the scabbard again. “I came to talk to your mate.”

As if on cue, Leikizu breezed into the room with a piece of paper that she extended to InuYasha. “Here you are. The best youkai doctors in Tokyo. In any case, let me know, and I’ll be more than happy to call and get Kagome in to see one as soon as possible. Don’t worry about the cost. Sesshoumaru will be more than happy to cover it.”

“I will?” Sesshoumaru drawled.

Leikizu shifted her gaze to the side. “Yes, you will.”

His answer was a long-suffering sigh.

InuYasha frowned as he stared at the paper. “Which one is best?” he finally asked.

Leikizu shrugged. “Dr. Uneomou is the best, however—”

“Then that one,” InuYasha decided. He missed the worried glance that Leikizu shot her mate.

Sesshoumaru almost smiled. “Are you certain about that, baka?”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! You said this doctor is the best, right? Then yes, I’m sure.”

“InuYasha—”

“You heard him, Lei. He wants his miko to have the best . . . and I, for one, can’t say I blame him for that.”

InuYasha’s gaze turned suspicious as he raised his eyes to stare at his brother. “What?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head. “Surely you have better things to do than add your stench to my home?”

“You really are a bastard, did you know?”

Sesshoumaru managed to keep his amusement to himself until he heard the front door slam behind his volatile brother. With a soft chuckle, he shook his head—until he caught Leikizu’s menacing expression.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she remarked casually enough, despite the glowing behind her magenta gaze.

“They’ll see each other sooner or later. It’s inevitable.”

“True as that may be, it may not be in Kagome’s best interest to be caught between InuYasha and Katosan while she’s pregnant.”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “She’s strong. Who knows? Maybe she’ll purify that baka of a brother of mine . . . .”

Leikizu shook her head and stalked out of the study, leaving Sesshoumaru behind with his smile widening just a little. All right, perhaps it was an underhanded tactic. At least the prenatal visit would prove entertaining . . . .

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Kagome? Are you all right?”

Slowly glancing up from the dish of oden before her, Kagome swallowed hard as an intense wave of nausea hit her hard. “Fine,” she managed with a wan smile as she tried to convince Mrs. Higurashi that there was nothing wrong with her.

Her mother wasn’t buying. “I made your favorite, you look like you’re going to be ill, and you tell me you’re fine?”

“Keh! Did you finish your exams, wench?” InuYasha interrupted, ignoring Sango and Miroku’s puzzled expressions.

“Well, no, I have a couple tomorrow,” Kagome remarked, relief obvious in her tone as she shot InuYasha a grateful glance.

“Shippou tells me you’ve been sick for the last couple of days,” Mrs. Higurashi went on as she stared at her plate. “Should I make you an appointment to see the doctor? If you have a stomach virus . . . .”

“Did he?” Kagome asked, careful to keep her tone light as InuYasha shot the kitsune a warning look. Shippou immediately dropped his chopsticks and covered his nose.

Miroku shook his head, knowing the signs of a reluctant hanyou and miko when he saw them. “There’s something you’re not saying, isn’t there?”

“How was your doctor visit, Sango? Any news?” Kagome raised her voice to ask as she repeated in her head, ‘ _I will not throw up, I will not throw up, I will not throw up_. . . .’ The sight of the food before her made that mantra harder to abide by.

“Dr. Yukina’s scheduled the surgery, and hopefully we’ll be able to try for a baby soon,” Sango replied with a hesitant smile. Miroku leaned over and squeezed her shoulders.

“That’s great!” Kagome said, mustering as much enthusiasm as she could.

“InuYasha, would you like more?” Mrs. Higurashi asked. He shook his head.

“I would,” Souta piped up.

Mrs. Higurashi waited as Souta’s dish was passed over. She refilled it and handed it to Kagome. The smell of the food hit her hard, and with a gasp, she shoved the plate at InuYasha, who barely managed to keep it from tumbling into his lap as she shot to her feet and sprinted out of the kitchen.

Mrs. Higurashi watched her daughter’s unceremonious exit before her gaze slowly shifted to InuYasha. He handed the dish over to Souta and swallowed hard at the overwhelming suspicion in Kagome’s mother’s stare. “InuYasha . . . could I speak to you a moment? Outside?”

Trying to look like he wasn’t concerned as his stomach felt like it was being tied in knots, InuYasha got up to follow Mrs. Higurashi out of the kitchen and toward the back doors. Hand on Tetsusaiga’s hilt in case he had to make a quick escape and in case he had to cut down some walls to get to Kagome, he waited while Mrs. Higurashi closed the door behind them and turned to stare at him.

“Is there something you need to tell me?” she asked quietly, her tone neutral.

“ . . . No,” he hedged, hoping she didn’t see the tell-tale reddening in his face.

“You’re sure?”

Ears twitching nervously, InuYasha nodded. “I’m sure.”

Mrs. Higurashi nodded slowly as she turned away and wandered toward Goshinboku. InuYasha reluctantly followed. “You know, I told Kagome’s father right here, under this tree, that I was pregnant with her. I remember both times . . . it was terrible. If someone even mentioned food to me, I’d be running for the bathroom . . . .” Trailing off, she turned to stare at InuYasha again. “Are you sure you don’t have something to tell me?”

Ears drooping, he shifted nervously under her scrutiny. “So you . . . know.”

She sighed. “How pregnant is my daughter?”

He didn’t like the possessive way Mrs. Higurashi had called Kagome ‘her daughter’. He let it pass though he did frown. “Two days.”

Mrs. Higurashi did look surprised at that. “Two days? Kagome’s throwing up that badly after just two days?”

He blushed. “It’s a hanyou pup. They’re always stronger than human ones.”

The door scraped as it opened. Seeing the two of them under Goshinboku, Kagome closed the door and ran over to them. “Mama, let me explain,” she hurriedly said as she stepped between InuYasha and her mother. “It was the night the well closed, and . . . we weren’t really thinking, when he found me, and . . . um . . . .”

Mrs. Higurashi held up a hand to stop her daughter’s ramblings. “That’s all right, dear. I don’t think I want to hear how your baby was conceived.” She sighed and shook her head. “I just want to know what the two of you plan on doing now.”

A low growl escaped InuYasha as he grabbed Kagome gently but firmly and leapt into the branches of the God Tree. “Stay here, wench,” he said as he deposited her and dropped back to the ground.

“Stay here?” Kagome called down. “Where am I supposed to go? InuYasha!”

He ignored her. “I don’t think I like your tone,” he remarked to Mrs. Higurashi, arms crossing over his chest, hand hovering above Tetsusaiga’s hilt.

Mrs. Higurashi was staring up at Kagome with her hand to her lips. “That’s not safe,” she stated as though she hadn’t heard a thing InuYasha had said.

“I think I’m going to be sick again,” Kagome whimpered.

InuYasha’s ears twitched and he moved aside in case she did decide to be sick again though he made no move to retrieve his mate, either. “You’re not keeping me away from my mate or my pup,” he growled louder, and finally managed to get Mrs. Higurashi’s attention.

She blinked in surprise. “Why would I try to do such a thing? Will you get her down? She does look quite peaked.”

“I’m serious,” Kagome whined. “I really think—”

“Aim away from the clothes, wench,” InuYasha called up to her. “You promise?” he asked Mrs. Higurashi.

“Heavens, yes I promise! _Now_ will you get her down?”

That was all he was waiting for. Within moments, Kagome was safely back on the ground as her color returned to normal.

“Kagome, you’d better go lie down,” Mrs. Higurashi commented as she reached to feel Kagome’s head. InuYasha growled. Kagome made a face at his overprotective behavior.

“I’m fine, Mama. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. InuYasha was just worried.”

Mrs. Higurashi shook her head again, tossing her hands up at her sides. “There’s one little thing, though . . . .”

InuYasha’s growl was cut off by a quick jab to his ribs from his mate. He reached over her shoulder and tweaked her nose. Kagome wrinkled it and rolled her eyes. “Keh!”

“And on this, there will be absolutely no arguments,” Mrs. Higurashi went on with firm resolve furrowing her brow. “You two will be married as quickly as it can be arranged, do you understand?”

Kagome shot InuYasha a questioning glance. He nodded once. “Keh.”

Mrs. Higurashi sighed once more. “A hanyou, you say?”

Kagome grinned and nodded. “Yep.”

“Will it have your cute ears?”

InuYasha flushed. “Keh!” he snorted, bounding into the branches of Goshinboku again.

Mrs. Higurashi hugged Kagome tight. “My little girl really is grown up,” she remarked with a sad sigh.

“Thanks, Mama. I’m sorry that we didn’t tell you.”

She nodded. “I understand. I wish you had waited but . . . there’s no sense worrying over what can’t be changed. I have every faith in the both of you, you know. Have you thought about making an appointment with a doctor?”

“I thought I should wait until I’m a little more pregnant,” Kagome remarked.

“Keh! Leikizu is making one for you,” InuYasha called down from Goshinboku.

Kagome blinked in surprise. “Was that where you went earlier?”

He didn’t answer. She grinned.

“Let me make you some broth and crackers. That was what I lived on for the first three months with both you and Souta. It was all I could keep down,” Mrs. Higurashi commented. “Have you given any thought to baby names?”

“Not yet,” Kagome giggled.

“Let me see if I still have any of the baby name books I got when I was pregnant with Souta.”

“Okay.”

“And we need to make plans for your wedding. It’ll be rushed, but I’m sure we can still have a lovely little ceremony, maybe here at the shrine . . . .”

Kagome nodded and stopped to look back at Goshinboku. “InuYasha? Are you coming?”

“In awhile, wench,” he assured her. Settling back in the tree, he stared at the sky. ‘ _So it wasn’t that bad_ ,’ he had to admit. At least all of his parts were still where they were supposed to be . . . .

A sudden savage jolt shot through him. He hadn’t realized how used he’d gotten to having Kagome up here with him. Staring at the house with a low whine, he sighed. He knew there was a reason he’d wanted to keep the secret to themselves.

Moments later, the back door opened again. InuYasha watched the kitsune dart to stand below Goshinboku. Staring up through the branches, his eyes dark in the dusky light, he tilted his head to the side and cleared his throat. “InuYasha? I wasn’t trying to tell Grandma,” Shippou said, his voice high with pent-up anxiety.

With a sigh, InuYasha dropped out of the tree and sank down on the ground by the youngster. “It’s all right, Shippou. She was bound to find out sooner or later.”

“Is . . . is Kagome really sick?”

Sensing the kitsune’s anxiety, InuYasha sighed and patted him on the back, awkward and clumsy but comforting just the same. “She’ll be fine.”

Shippou shook his head, sitting down as his tail twitched nervously. InuYasha grinned just a little. The concealment fangs only worked with those who hadn’t seen a youkai in full form before. While everyone who had seen InuYasha or Shippou before they’d gotten the charms would still see them as they normally looked, the rest of the world could not. InuYasha wondered just how Shippou looked as a human. Suddenly he sat up a little straighter. Soon there’d be another pup who’d require a concealment talisman, too.

“Shippou . . . . Remember when you said before that you’d like a brother or sister?”

The kitsune nodded. “Yeah.”

“Be careful around Kagome, okay? She’s going to have that pup.”

Shippou’s eyes widened, his expression full of cautious hope. “Really?”

InuYasha’s grin widened. “Really, runt.”

“So . . . will it be a boy?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Can’t say for sure. We’ll know when it’s born.”

Shippou sighed. “I guess I can wait,” he allowed. “Is that why she’s been sick?”

“Yeah.”

“She won’t be sick forever, will she?”

“Keh, let’s hope not.”

“I know you said we have to be careful with her . . . does that mean I can’t hug her anymore?”

InuYasha shook his head. “Hugs would be all right,” he allowed. “Just to go throwing yourself at her, all right?”

“All right,” Shippou agreed easily enough. He hopped up to run back inside.

InuYasha watched him go and sighed. He wanted to go inside, gather Kagome up, and take her back into the solitude of the forest. Pushing off the ground, he lit back in the tree, settling against the trunk, staring over the countless electric lights casting the city in a false daylight. In this time and in this place, he couldn’t help but long for the time he better knew, the open wild, the freedom to live without the constant need for a disguise.

Then again, what if Kagome or Shippou or the pup had trouble, like Sango? What if something happened that he couldn’t fix? Something that Kagome’s first aid kit couldn’t mend? ‘ _Maybe_ ,’ he allowed even if a bit grudgingly, ‘ _maybe it’s all right_. . . .’

Kagome stepped outside and wandered over to the tree. “InuYasha? Are you all right?”

He hopped down and pulled the book out of her hands. _’10,000 Baby Names’_ , it said. He snorted. “Fine, wench,” he answered. “But you need to lie down. No arguing,” he stated when she opened her mouth to protest.

“In a little while,” she agreed, reaching out to take his hand. “You miss it, don’t you?”

“Miss what?”

She smiled wanly. “The past.”

He shrugged. “Some. I’d rather be here with you then there alone.”

She sighed and leaned up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “We’ll see if you still think that when you’re chasing Shippou and the baby around . . . he says he’s going to teach the baby how to use foxfire.”

“I’ll tweak him,” InuYasha threatened but smiled.

Kagome started to answer but yawned instead. He picked her up gently and headed toward their small home. She sighed and let her head rest on his shoulder. “You won’t be able to do this long,” she predicted.

“Keh. I’m hanyou, remember? I’m much stronger than you pathetic humans.”

She yawned again. She was asleep by the time he laid her on the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Kagome_** :  
>  _See, InuYasha? That wasn’t so bad_. . . .


	88. Beyond the Control

The opulent office overlooking the city was dark, the dim lamps scattered around the room did little to lighten the abject atmosphere. As though sound itself had been forbidden in this place, the only noise was the slow, methodic drum of claws against polished wood.

The soft whir of the computer fan was dulled by the cabinet beneath the desk. The phone on the desk rang, a disturbance in the order, a vapid noise that shattered the forced tranquility. “Yes.”

“Have you seen this morning’s paper?”

Moving the receiver away from his head long enough to stare at the device for a moment before bringing it back to his ear, he grunted in reply. “I have.”

“The Inu no Taisho is drawing unnecessary attention, don’t you think?”

“Let him. If he exposes us all, at least we won’t have to hide behind disguises and subterfuge, huddling like vermin afraid of the light.”

A pause on the other end of the line, a moment of quiet, a moment of peace. “I called for your orders, my lord.”

“Nothing, for now. I’ll be in touch, should I require anything more of you.”

Dropping the handset back into the cradle, he sank back in his chair and stifled a growl. The Inu no Taisho. He hated Inotaishou Sesshoumaru almost as much as he had loathed the youkai’s half-brother. Lips drawing back in a primal snarl, he dug his claws against the desk, leaving deep gouges in the wood in the wake of his fingers.

‘ _How did he escape me?_ ’ he asked himself again. ‘ _That worthless brat, that shameful presence . . . I had it all within my grasp, and somehow he managed to evade even me_.’ Anger rose in him, bitter rage. ‘ _Impossible! How could he have just disappeared? And his companions as well . . . where in the world . . . ?_ ’

It had something to do with that well. He knew it did. Both times he had seen them, they had been at that well. Had they somehow managed to escape through it? At the time, he had thought that was simply a fanciful thought. Now, however, he had to wonder. There had once been a legend of a magical well. Was that how they’d managed to escape?

Wrapping his hand around the brandy snifter, swirling the amber liquid inside, he stared at the fragile crystal with a cynical sneer. The newspaper beside him wrenched a low, menacing growl. ‘ _Inotaishou Sesshoumaru Announces Inotaishou Technologies’ Acquisition of Telekazaan_.’ It wasn’t the headline that bothered him. The publicity shot of the tai-youkai and his family . . . his bitch was whelping again? Bad enough, that weak, pathetic son, the one known as Nibori—the one who bore the crescent moon crest . . . to add more to their count was unforgivable.

Something else about that photo drew his attention as he gazed at it. Setting the snifter aside, he deliberately reached for the paper, eyes narrowing as he looked again. The photo, taken on the steps outside Inotaishou’s office building, the man behind the family was the point of interest. Short, black hair, expensive suit, dark sunglasses, holding a cell phone to his ear as he kept an eye out for his employer . . . He _knew_ that face. ‘ _The monk_ ,’ he thought with a twisted smile. ‘ _They’re here? And if they’re here . . ._ ’

Hand closing around the snifter so tightly that the crystal shattered in his grasp. Dull pain registered as the scent of blood that dripped onto the blotter and dissolved the paper with a wisp of acrid smoke.

“InuYasha.”

 

 

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“I don’t have all day to waste while you consider my offer.”

InuYasha glared across the desk at his brother, wondering just what Sesshoumaru’s motives were. “Let me get this straight. You bought a company you had no interest in just so that you could have it, and you want me to run it? Keh! I don’t know a fucking thing about business.”

Sesshoumaru leaned back in his chair, pinning InuYasha with a bored stare. “I have my reasons, baka. It’ll never make money. It’s nothing but a financial drain. In the business world, a financial drain means a tax break. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re doing or not. You can’t mess it up any worse than it already is.”

“So you’re setting me up to fail from the start?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “Call it training ground.”

“Call it stupid.”

“Call it what you will, InuYasha. I thought you had more pride than that.”

“I don’t think I like where you’re going with this,” InuYasha remarked tightly.

Sesshoumaru sighed. “Be not a fool. Your mate is carrying your pup, and who is paying for this? Where are you living? Does this satisfy you?”

InuYasha’s glare darkened as Sesshoumaru’s assessment of the situation hit home. “Damn you . . .”

“I’m offering you a chance to earn your keep, baka. Granted, this company will eventually fold. It’s inevitable. But until then, perhaps you should use the opportunity to learn something other than how to swing Tetsusaiga around?”

InuYasha shook his head. “And you know this place will fail? Always so ready to write off everyone, aren’t you? What a bastard.”

Staring at him for long moments, Sesshoumaru leaned forward, narrowing his gaze on his brother. “All right, InuYasha. You learn the business, you turn it around, and if you can manage to keep it from becoming a complete loss, I’ll sign it over to you.”

“And if I can’t?”

Sesshoumaru sat back. “If you can’t, then I’ll take your forest.”

“Keh! What forest?”

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Baka . . . pay attention. The forest the miko’s shrine sits on. It’s always been yours.”

InuYasha blinked in surprise. “It has?”

Rifling through his desk drawers, Sesshoumaru pulled out a deed and a small black book and tossed them down on the desk. “Yes, it has, which reminds me.” Digging around again this time produced a set of keys that Sesshoumaru dropped atop the land title. “Here’s your house.”

“How the hell did I get a house?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head. “Your forest is government protected, and while it is private property, you have received disbursements from them for the last hundred or so years. You didn’t think _I_ paid for your house?”

“Keh.” Lifting the black book, InuYasha made a face at the plastic smell of the cover.

“It’s your bank account, baka.”

It occurred to him that he ought to thank Sesshoumaru. Staring across the wide desk at his smug face, though, InuYasha just couldn’t do it. “Did you set traps in the house?” he asked instead.

“I’ve never been inside it. Leikizu commissioned it. I told you before, she had a fondness for pathetic animals.”

“Always a bastard,” InuYasha mumbled under his breath as he stood up and grabbed the documents off the desk.

“Pardon?”

“Not a damn thing,” InuYasha bit out. “I’ll take your fucking offer, but you’ll never get my forest.”

He stormed out of the study. Sesshoumaru smiled as the front door slammed closed. Miroku stuck his head into the room. “It worked, I take it?”

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly. “Like a charm. You know my brother well.”

Miroku grinned. “Well . . . yeah.”

 

 

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“ _What?_ ” InuYasha bellowed.

Kagome grimaced. She knew that InuYasha wasn’t going to like it, but . . . “Just for tonight,” she pleaded as her belly lurched in protest of his raised voice.

“What the fuck! _No!_ ”

“Well, it really _is_ tradition,” she went on lamely, a hand pressed against her stomach as though she were trying to soothe the life she carried. “Mama said—”

“I _knew_ she hated me,” he fumed, pacing the length of the bedroom. “Damn it, there is no way you’re going to stay in the main house tonight without me!”

“InuYasha, you need to lower your voice,” Kagome explained, fighting to keep her own lowered before the baby really had a fit. “You know the baby can hear you, and you’re upsetting him.”

“Keh! I’ll yell if I want to,” he growled though his tone did lower. “ _She_ might as well get used to it.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “You’re going to give _him_ a complex if you keep calling _him_ a girl.”

“We already have a son,” InuYasha shot back. “So _she’ll_ be a girl!”

Kagome sighed. There was no reasoning with him. Absolutely none. It didn’t matter to him one bit that she had been having dreams lately of their unborn child, and in every one of those dreams, the child had been a boy. InuYasha still stubbornly held to the idea that they were going to have a daughter—because _he_ said so.

“Well, stop yelling or I’ll throw up on you,” she threatened. Every time he started one of his tirades, which hadn’t been often lately, thank goodness, it always ended with her getting sick, as though the child couldn’t stand to hear the raised voices, or maybe it could just sense Kagome’s upset. Either way, since the morning sickness had passed after two weeks of nonstop purging, she wasn’t in the mood to revisit that.

The doctor she’d seen—Dr. Yamachi—said that Kagome’s morning sickness shouldn’t last long and had given her an herbal remedy for it. The one pill she took in the morning along with her prenatal vitamin did the trick. Since she’d started the herbal regimen, she had never felt better. Other than that, though, she’d been assured that hanyou pregnancies were exactly the same as regular human ones, so that was a huge relief to her, too. InuYasha had grumbled about the ‘better doctor’ being booked solid. Kagome liked Dr. Yamachi, though, mostly because she was a woman, and that made things a lot more comfortable.

“You can’t throw up on command, wench!” he growled. “Anyway, you’ve got to keep your food down. You’re wasting away to nothing, and you didn’t have much on you to start with. You can’t starve my pup!”

“He’s fine,” she protested.

“ _He_ is a _she_ , damn it! You’d better eat your dinner tonight, and stop starving her!”

“Him!”

“Her!”

“I think you should be glad that your baby is healthy and leave the question of boy or girl to kami.” Both turned to see Sango lingering in the doorway. Kagome didn’t miss the marked brightness in her friend’s eyes. “Dinner is ready.” Sango turned and hurried out of the room.

Kagome started after her. InuYasha caught her arm. “We’re not done, wench!”

Pulling her arm away from InuYasha, she glared at him. “I don’t have time to argue with you, InuYasha. Just go somewhere for the night, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Right now . . . we upset Sango, and she needs me.”

 

 

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“Sango?”

With a start, Sango quickly wiped the tears off her cheeks and pasted on a bright smile as Kagome sat down beside her on the bed. “I’m sorry, Sango . . . I wasn’t thinking, and, well . . .”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Kagome,” Sango insisted. “I lost my temper, and I shouldn’t have. I’m so glad for you two . . . I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

Kagome sighed. “It was thoughtless of me. Sango . . .”

“I feel so badly because I spoke out of line. I’m sorry.”

“It must be hard for you. I know you and Miroku want a baby, too.”

“We do, and we’ll have one. The doctor said that the surgery should go well, and afterwards . . .” she sighed. “I’m learning a lot about your time—a lot more than I ever thought I would.” She shook her head. “Tomorrow is your day, and I want it to be as happy for you as mine was for me.”

“Sango . . .”

Sango’s smile was real this time. “Your mother and I planned a special evening for us. It’s called a ‘spa night’, and she invited some of your friends from your old school as well as Leikizu and the others.”

Kagome hugged her. “You’re right. It’ll be fun.”

Sango shrugged. “Did Shippou go with Miroku and InuYasha?”

“No, he and Souta are staying with one of Souta’s friends tonight.” She trailed off, staring at her friend, trying to discern if Sango really was as all right as she seemed to be. “Sango . . . I’m really sorry about your baby . . . I wish I could have helped.”

Sango’s eyes widened in alarm as she grabbed Kagome’s hands and squeezed. “Oh, no! Had it not been for you, I might have . . .” she trailed off, swallowing hard as she forced a weak smile. “If you hadn’t thought to bring me here, I wouldn’t be able to have the surgery so I could have children, I hope! You haven’t a thing to be sorry for!”

Kagome smiled. “I know it will be all right. If anyone deserves children and everything, you and Miroku do.”

A sudden frown surfaced on Sango’s face. “Kagome . . . did InuYasha tell you what he was going to do tonight?”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “No, he didn’t . . . why?”

Sango shrugged. “Miroku didn’t, either. All he knew was that InuYasha had ‘plans’.”

Kagome’s eyebrows arched. ‘ _Plans? Why does that scare me?_ ’

 

 

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Miroku dropped the box as he struggled to breathe and wiped the sweat off his brow. “When you said you had plans for tonight, InuYasha, I didn’t think it would involve manual labor.”

“Shut up and lift, monk,” InuYasha grumbled as he stomped through with two boxes.

“Why the rush? You could do this tomorrow after the reception,” Miroku pointed out.

“Because after the reception I’m barricading the door against all of the rest of you,” he stated.

The doorbell interrupted Miroku’s reply to that. Since InuYasha’s arms were still full, he strode out of the room and into the foyer to answer the door. With a wide grin, Miroku stepped back to admit the visitors. “InuYasha . . . you have guests.”

“Unless it’s Kagome tell them to go the fuck away,” InuYasha called.

“Dog-shit!”

InuYasha’s groan was audible before he even turned around. “Hell, I thought I got away from you when I left Sengoku Jidai.”

“You can never have too much of a great thing,” Kouga remarked as he moved a box off the sofa and plopped down.

“You’re a thing, all right, you mangy wolf,” InuYasha muttered as he dropped the box in his arms and stomped off to retrieve another.

“Uncle, I hope you like the house. Mother wasn’t sure what sort of furnishings you’d care for.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Damn, you, too? The only thing that could make this any worse would be—”

“InuYasha.”

“ _Fuck_.”

“Forgive the intrusion, Uncle. Mother and the other women are all at the shrine, and Kagome’s mother said you were here.”

“Great,” InuYasha snorted. “So I’m stuck with all you bastards?”

“Oh, now that hurts, dog-shit,” Kouga remarked. “Got anything to drink?”

“Keh.”

Miroku headed back to the kitchen to retrieve sodas out of the refrigerator. He made a face. InuYasha flat out refused to allow anything that might be bad for Kagome or the ‘pup’ over the threshold, and that included sake.

When he rounded the corner into the living room again, it was to find the others standing around staring at InuYasha with varying degrees of humor in their expressions. Kouga looked the most amused. Sesshoumaru was barely smiling. Nibori was coughing into his fist as he tried not to laugh. Daichi stood back with Jinenji, both of whom were hiding smirks of their own. InuYasha was a lovely shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’ red but that was rapidly escalating into ‘fire-rat-haori’ . . .

“Did I miss something?” Miroku asked.

“No,” InuYasha snarled.

“We were just marveling at InuYasha’s ability to . . . purify the jewel,” Nibori managed to say between bouts of coughing.

InuYasha shot him a glare that promised Miroku hours of painful movement for having let that bit of information slip.

“Gotta hand it to you, mutt-face, I was amazed you finally got the nerve to claim Kagome in the first place,” Kouga remarked as he popped open his soda. “Must’ve been the most abysmal fifteen seconds of her life.”

“You hella nasty fucking mangy—”

“I don’t know, Kouga . . . InuYasha had some decent scratches on his back from his playtime with Kagome . . .”

“Miroku—”

Kouga chuckled. “Didn’t think you had it in you, mutt-face.”

“I should have left you in the forest,” InuYasha grumbled as he shot to his feet and snatched up a box labeled ‘kitchen supplies’.

Ignoring InuYasha’s irritated response, Miroku twisted the knife, just a little more. “Sesshoumaru asked him once if he’d defiled the miko,” Miroku spoke up.

“Ah, yes,” Sesshoumaru remembered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “So I did.”

“Shut the fuck up!” InuYasha growled as he dropped the box. The sound of shattering glass inside the parcel made Miroku wince as he wondered exactly how much trouble InuYasha would catch for that. The hanyou lunged at him, obviously deciding that Miroku was the cause of the torment he was suffering. Nibori caught InuYasha and held him back.

Miroku chuckled. “Was it something I said?” he couldn’t resist asking.

InuYasha growled but straightened up to glare at him, instead. “Keh! I’ll remember this, monk.”

Miroku’s chuckle escalated into a deep laugh. It was going to be a long night . . . for InuYasha . . .

 

 

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Sitting around the Higurashi living room in bathrobes with avocado and ginseng facial masks applied, the women all seemed to be enjoying themselves in their ‘spa night’.

Kagome’s old friends were taking turns telling her the latest stories about classes and their happenings. Kagome was glad they’d come. It had been far too long since she’d spent an evening ‘with the girls’. Eri sat back with a happy sigh. “Kagome, why are you getting married so suddenly?”

Kagome glanced down at her still-flat stomach and forced a smile. “InuYasha just got a job, and we just thought . . . now would be good.”

“I can’t believe you’re getting married to the angry, jealous guy!” Ayumi spoke up with a giggle.

“But he was cool when we met him, remember? So adorable! He looked like such a cute little puppy, with those eyes and that way he sat on the floor!” Yuka giggled. “You just wanted to squeeze him! He didn’t look like a knuckle-dragger to me . . .”

Sango choked on her tea at the puppy reference. Kagome reached over and thumped her back. “That’s InuYasha . . . cute as a puppy,” she remarked with a grin. Sango’s choke escalated into a hacking cough.

“When is your baby due?” Eri asked.

It was Kagome’s turn to cough before she realized that her friend was talking to Leikizu, who, though only four months along, was already showing her condition.

Leikizu smiled as she rubbed her distended stomach. “Not nearly soon enough,” she joked.

“Are you going to start a family soon, Kagome?” Ayumi asked.

“Umm . . .”

“Oh, she’s got lots of time to do that, don’t you, Kagome? No rush, right?” Yuka piped up.

“Y—yeah, right,” Kagome agreed weakly. She caught her mother’s eye as she glanced up from her discussion with Kouga’s mate, Ayame. Mrs. Higurashi just smiled.

Forcing a smile that she hoped the others couldn’t see right through, Kagome tried to relax. The way her stomach was churning, she had to wonder if she’d make it through the rest of the night as well as the wedding tomorrow without throwing up.

She sighed and willed herself to calm down. Sango got up to wash off her mask, and Kagome trailed after her, as much to escape the women’s teasing as she was to try to regain a semblance of composure.

“You’re pale,” Sango noted as Kagome dried her face with a fluffy pink towel. “Do you need to lie down?”

Kagome shook her head. “No . . . and I’d never be able to explain that, anyway.”

Sango didn’t look convinced. “Still, if you’re not feeling well, I’m sure your mother and I can come up with something acceptable . . .”

She forced another smile and quickly hugged Sango. “I’m fine!” Though she didn’t look like she was buying Kagome’s fabrication, Sango smiled, too.

‘ _Come on, Kagome. By this time tomorrow, it’ll all be over . . . I’ll be Inotaishou Kagome_ . . .’

And that thought was more than enough to make her smile very, very real.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Sango_** :  
>  _… I have a bad feeling about this wedding_ …


	89. Murphy's Law

“You look beautiful.”

Kagome pressed a hand against her belly as butterflies took over. Smiling nervously at Sango, she couldn’t repress the slight groan at the number of guests that were filing into the shrine courtyard.  “Thanks, Sango . . . I thought Mama said she was only inviting a few _hundred_ people.”

Leaning over her shoulder, Sango gasped and stepped back. “Kagome . . . Most of those people . . . are they youkai?”

Narrowing her gaze as she stared at the courtyard, Kagome gasped, too, and stifled a groan. “They are,” she agreed, sensing their youki even from her old bedroom window. “But . . . how?” Spotting one of the few humans mingling with the youkai, Kagome did groan. “Houjou? Mama invited Houjou?” Turning her wary eyes on her friend, Kagome shook her head. “This _can’t_ be a good omen.”

“Let me see you!” Mrs. Higurashi exclaimed softly as she stepped into the bedroom. Dressed in a white silk kimono trimmed and embroidered with crimson silk thread, Kagome waited nervously while her mother gave her the critical once over. Leaning closer to tug a few wisps of hair out of the high, loose knot atop her daughter’s head, Mrs. Higurashi stepped back and offered Kagome a watery, trembling smile. “Perfectly lovely.”

A relieved grin surfaced just before Kagome noticed the arrival of still more guests. “Mama, I thought you said a few, not the entire population of the city!” she complained weakly. “Is that Totosai?”

Sango stepped over to the window as Mrs. Higurashi leaned around to look out, too. “Oh, my, I didn’t invite that many people . . .”

“Yes, that’s definitely Totosai,” Sango confirmed as she turned away from the window. “Let me go find InuYasha. Maybe he knows something.”

Hurrying from the room, Sango nearly ran into Miroku as he stepped out of Souta’s room. “Well . . . fancy meeting you here . . .” he joked as he steadied his wife.

“Houshi-sama, have you seen InuYasha?”

Miroku sighed. “The first time I’ve had time to say more than ‘good morning’ to you all day, and you’re asking me about InuYasha?”

“The shrine is overflowing with uninvited youkai,” she pointed out.

Miroku’s smile faltered. “I think he’s in the old house.”

Sango nodded and headed for the stairs. Miroku caught her elbow and made a face. “You’d better let me go find him. I have a feeling he’ll say a few things that you’re probably better off not hearing with your sensitive ears, and besides, Kagome needs you right now.”

Sango rolled her eyes but kissed his cheek as she hurried back to Kagome.

Miroku sighed as he ran down the steps. ‘ _A shrineful of youkai, huh . . . Nope, he’s not going to be pleased at all . . ._ ’

Weaving his way through the milling crowd as he shot a worried glance at the overcast skies, Miroku finally reached the small apartment house and slipped inside. The hanyou was already aware of the barrage of guests, and he wasn’t alone, either. Sesshoumaru leaned against the wall with a slight grin as InuYasha paced the floor, squeezing his hand into a tight fist over and over as he rested his other on Tetsusaiga.

Momentarily surprised to see InuYasha wearing his fire rat clothes, and Sesshoumaru clad in his archaic white outfit with the black armor over it, Miroku raised his eyebrows and suppressed his desire to laugh.

“What the hell were you thinking, bastard?” InuYasha growled, sending his brother a typical scowl.

Sesshoumaru straightened his back. “As unsavory as it might be, it is expected for me to acknowledge you as my brother. What better way for me to do this than at your wedding?”

Miroku moved the curtain covering the window aside and peeked out. The few humans in attendance were all staring at the assembled youkai in awe. While some of them looked like they were frightened, others seemed simply fascinated by the ethereal beauty many of the youkai possessed, and even in their human disguises, it had to be painfully obvious that there was something different about those beings.

There was one youkai, however, that drew Miroku’s notice, and he stifled a groan.

“InuYasha . . . I hate to say it,” he broke in as he turned around, dropping the curtain back into place, “Katosan’s here.”

Rounding incredulous eyes on his elder brother, the hanyou looked like he was about to draw Tetsusaiga as he stomped over to the window and looked outside. “You fucking bastard,” InuYasha growled as he slowly turned to glare at his brother. “What the _hell_ were you thinking?”

Sesshoumaru didn’t even blink. “Did he bring his mate? I think you’ve met her, as well.”

InuYasha looked like he really didn’t want to look. Almost as if he were afraid of who he was going to see, he slowly pushed the curtain aside again as he scanned the crowd for another familiar face.

“Oh, _hell_ no,” he growled as the curtain fell back again. Miroku had to look as InuYasha’s tirade hit the upswing.

“She’s the woman with Katosan?” Miroku asked absently, trying to figure out why InuYasha would dislike her. He couldn’t remember having met her, in the first place, and she looked decent enough. Golden hair caught up in a sensible chignon, green eyes bright behind the heavy, black framed eyeglasses, she looked like a business woman running late for an important meeting. Inclining her head in greeting as she and Katosan shook hands with others that Miroku hadn’t seen before, she smiled, flashing her dimples as she seemed to captivate the strange youkai. “She looks harmless enough.”

“Just take your happy ass out there and get rid of her,” InuYasha demanded, glowering at his brother, “before Kagome sees her!”

Sesshoumaru’s expression was just a little too innocent. “Your miko doesn’t care for Ayamakita?”

“Keh! What the hell do you think? She saw that bitch kiss me!”

“What’s that?” Miroku asked, swinging his head around to gape at InuYasha.

InuYasha’s face shot up in flames. “Just get the fuck rid of her!”

“She has something to give your miko, baka.”

InuYasha growled in frustration. “If she comes anywhere near Kagome, I’ll kill her, myself,” he promised. “I’m warning you—”

“How do I look?”

InuYasha dragged his glower off Sesshoumaru and schooled his features before turning to look at Shippou. Miroku hid his smile at the awestruck expression on the hanyou’s face. The kitsune was dressed in a traditional kimono that bore InuYasha’s crest, the white silk outfit was trimmed in crimson. InuYasha just stared, a strange light glowing in his gaze. “You’ll do, runt,” InuYasha finally said, his voice choked, dry.

Sesshoumaru made a show of checking his watch and cleared his throat. “Come, baka. It’s time, though I’ve little doubt that if your miko is even half as smart as I think she is, she’s already escaped.”

“Can you _not_ be a bastard, just today?” InuYasha grumbled as he yanked open the door. He wasn’t watching where he was going, so intent on growling at Sesshoumaru, that he stumbled right into one of the caterers that Leikizu had hired. A tangle of flying arms and legs as InuYasha landed flat on his back with the youkai caterer plopping down hard in the center of his chest, an unpleasant dampness seeping through his haori and undershirt as InuYasha shoved the caterer aside and shot to his feet.

Wrinkling his nose as a string of broken curses rose above the convoluted sounds of the assembled guests, InuYasha draped his arm over his nose as he turned on his heel and stomped right back into the house. Miroku tried to hide his amusement over the sake-soaked hanyou as InuYasha jerked at his clothes and dropped them on the floor as he headed back toward the empty bedroom.

“I thought you moved everything last night,” Shippou remarked with a frown.

Miroku chuckled. “We did.”

“Oi! Monk! Give me your clothes!”

“Come again?”

InuYasha stomped back into the living room with a marked scowl. “I don’t have anything to wear here, remember? Give me your clothes.”

Miroku shook his head slowly. “No.”

Golden eyes narrowing dangerously, InuYasha bared his fangs, cracking his knuckles as he glowered at the monk. “Don’t make me cut you up, lecher.”

Sesshoumaru sighed. “Baka . . . wear that.”

InuYasha stared at the garment bag laid over the chair with a scowl. “I’d rather—”

Indicating InuYasha’s towel that he’d grabbed out of the bathroom, Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes and shook his head slowly. “While you obviously wouldn’t care if you were married dressed as you are, I doubt your miko would be happy about it.”

“It’d make purifying the jewel that much easier later,” Miroku allowed as he checked his watch. InuYasha growled and cracked his knuckles again. “You’ve got two minutes before Kagome steps out of the house and thinks you’ve taken off,” he remarked.

With a louder growl, InuYasha snatched the garment bag off the chair and huffed off again.

Sesshoumaru shook his head again. “Baka.”

Miroku and Shippou nodded in silent agreement.

 

 

 ** _:::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Kagome stepped out of the shrine, feeling disoriented in the throngs of people she didn’t recognize. Whisked into the shrine between her mother and Sango with Leikizu behind her, she scarcely noticed the clap of thunder followed by the first fat rain droplets. Wasn’t it a bad omen, to be married during a storm?

Passing through the faceless crowd of family and close friends who were already seated inside the shrine, Kagome felt her grandfather’s hand on her back as he helped her stumble forward. Where was InuYasha?

“InuYasha ran into one of the caterers, literally,” Miroku mumbled to her.

She nodded vaguely, and she thought maybe she smiled at him. Was it normal, to feel entirely disconnected at her own wedding? Miroku squeezed her shoulder before returning to his seat. It felt like years passed before InuYasha sat down beside her. It might have only been moments. She could sense his irritation, and she turned to send him a questioning glance. He caught her hand and weaved his fingers into hers. She smiled.

Stomach tied in knots, the entire traditional Shinto ceremony passed by in such a haze that she remembered very little of it. Wondering instead where InuYasha had gotten the strangely formal white kimono, she shot him a curious glance. He stared straight ahead as color rose in his cheeks.

The priest hurried through the purification, lingering longer over Kagome than he did over InuYasha. Whether that was by accident or design, it didn’t register until later that it was likely to keep InuYasha from suffering through the debilitating change from his hanyou form to his human self. The ritualistic prayer seemed to last a long time, and Kagome smiled slightly when InuYasha growled low at her when they were offered the nuptial cups of sake to exchange three times, as was the custom. His noise was a warning, his intention clear: be careful because of the baby.

It surprised her when he produced a wedding band from the sleeve of the formal garb. She hadn’t realized he would know about such a thing as materialistic as a wedding band, and she didn’t realize he’d gone off to buy one. His hands shook slightly as he slipped the ring over her knuckle, and the smile he shot her was almost shy.

His nervousness didn’t show when he read his vow—a vow that he chose to protect her. Tears rose in her throat, thick enough to keep her from murmuring her name at the end of his promise. He escorted her to the alter to offer the tamagushi to the deities, and Kagome watched, pretending to drink her sake, as her family members as well as Sesshoumaru and Leikizu—who also just pretended—came forward to drink together, showing the merging of the two families into one.

With an audible sigh of relief when the ceremony concluded, InuYasha held out his elbow for her, his free hand reaching out, resting over hers, the warmth of his touch a reassuring caress. Feelings wholly safe, completely sheltered with him beside her, she let him lead her from the shrine as the voices wishing them long lives blessed with many children faded from her mind. Focused on InuYasha, she allowed herself a little giggle as he stopped and stared outside at the heavily falling rain.

“Do you think they’d notice if we snuck out the other door?” InuYasha mumbled, nodding toward the doors at the other end of the shrine as the few who had been permitted inside for the ceremony swept them toward the courtyard.

“Who are all these people?” Kagome asked, leaning closer to InuYasha as they stepped out into the damp courtyard. The wash of faces slowly came into focus, and she smiled as InuYasha squeezed her hand.

“Keh. That bastard of a brother’s idea of a joke,” InuYasha mumbled as more thunder cracked overhead. The hired help scurried to set up tents and after weighing his options, InuYasha picked Kagome up and darted toward the one tent that had been completely assembled.

Kagome’s face was slightly flushed but she hugged him as he let go of her legs. She sat down at the main table with him beside her as other people sought to find seats, too. Leaning back in her chair, she grinned at InuYasha as a sudden surge of pride that he was here, that he was beside her coursed through her. “I thought you were going to wear your fire rat clothes.”

He snorted. “I did, too, until a box of sake ran into me.”

“Not the other way around?” she teased.

“Keh . . . you saying I’m clumsy, wench?”

“Maybe.”

Staring again at the formality of his clothes, she was struck by how closely the outfit resembled Sesshoumaru’s, but where Sesshoumaru’s embroidery was a deep blue color, InuYasha was crimson red and white. Odd how the same style of clothing could look completely different on two separate men. Where Sesshoumaru’s clothes added to his aloof tendencies, his unapproachable demeanor, InuYasha seemed far more vibrant, more alive, with an air of silent nobility, of strength. “Where’d you get that?”

The look on his face said it all, as far as Kagome was concerned. Leikizu had obviously supplied the outfit, and Shippou’s matched his exactly.

Because of the number of assembled guests, the tables were put away, allowing everyone to mingle from tent to tent. Coming by to wish InuYasha and Kagome their well-wishes, the strange sense of not actually being _there_ hung onto Kagome’s mind.

The wash of faces she didn’t know was daunting. Strange to see how they bowed low before InuYasha as he shifted uncomfortably, acute embarrassment evident in the heightened color of his face.   “What are they doing?” she asked him.

InuYasha flushed and scowled, his eyes downcast. He was uncomfortable with the attention, and she offered him a compassionate grin as he mumbled, “You got me.”

“They’re acknowledging you,” Sesshoumaru remarked in a tone that suggested that InuYasha ought to know as much.

“Why don’t you go away?” InuYasha suggested tightly.

“And where would you suggest?”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! Who the hell cares as long as it’s far away from me?”

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi hurried over and grabbed Kagome’s hands. “Come on, Kagome! You’ve got to change your clothes, remember?”

Kagome smiled. Actually she had forgotten about that. It was tradition for the bride to change outfits at least two or three times. Her mother had saved her ceremonial gowns in hope that Kagome would one day wear them at her own wedding. She shot InuYasha a quick grin as the girls hustled her toward the edge of the tent. He looked like he was going to follow—until he was waylaid by Kouga and Ayame.

“Nice turn out, dog-shit, though I’ve little doubt that they’re here because Sesshoumaru made them come than for you.”

“Shut the hell up, you mangy wolf.”

Kagome lifted the hem of her kimono off the ground as she tried to dart to the back doors. “I can’t believe how many people are here!” Eri exclaimed. “Did you see that one guy? The one with wolfish smile?”

Kagome suppressed her desire to laugh. Eri was talking about Daichi. There was a very good reason that his smile could be described as ‘wolfish’ . . .

“InuYasha’s nephew is more my type,” Ayumi remarked, glancing over her shoulder at Nibori who was standing with InuYasha and Kouga. Ayame had moved on, likely giving up on separating the two rivals, and was busy in a discussion with Sango as Miroku caught InuYasha’s arm. Obviously the hanyou hadn’t liked something that Kouga had said.

“Why don’t you introduce them?” Yuka piped up.

Kagome blushed as InuYasha’s stare locked with hers. Fierce, penetrating, his gaze held a hint of intense burn, and he smiled just a little.

“Come on, Kagome . . . you can stare at him like that all you want later! Now about introducing Ayumi and that guy . . .” Eri commented.

“What’s that?” Kagome murmured, dragging her eyes off InuYasha at last as her blush darkened.

She stumbled as her foot slipped on the wet pavement. Someone caught her before she fell as Kagome pressed a hand against her lurching stomach and tried to catch her breath. Glancing up at her savior, she stifled a groan to see it was Houjou. “Th-thank you,” she stammered as she stepped back, hoping that InuYasha hadn’t seen that.

“Are you all right, Higur—Inotaishou?” Houjou asked as color filtered into his cheeks at his near-slip.

“Yes, thanks,” Kagome heard herself answer as she dared a peek back to see whether or not InuYasha had seen it. Storming straight toward her and looking as though he was going to try to rip Houjou to tiny bits, InuYasha shot her a ‘You’d-Better-Stay-Out-Of-This’ glower. In an effort to distract InuYasha, Kagome hurried toward the house once more only to be stopped by another voice.

“Mama!” Shippou called as he barreled out of the tent and skidded to a stop before her. “You didn’t hurt the baby, did you?”

It seemed to Kagome that the entire gathering must have heard Shippou since an unnatural hush fell over the crowd. The youkai in attendance seemed to be duly impressed, judging by their smiles of approval, as Kagome’s face reddened. InuYasha was suddenly there beside her, and Kagome dared to peek at her friends’ shocked faces. Eri blinked in surprise, Yuka had her hands pressed over her mouth, and Ayumi giggled.

“ _Mama?_ ” Yuka gasped.

“ _Baby?_ ” Eri added.

“Congratulations!” Ayumi exclaimed, hopping up and down as she clapped her hands in giddy excitement.

“You’re pregnant?” Houjou asked, eyes widening.

InuYasha broke into a menacing growl as he glared at the human. Kagome tried to poke him in the ribs without being too obvious about it. InuYasha tweaked her nose. Kagome’s flush was almost painful as the youkai broke into approving twitters at InuYasha’s perceived discipline of his ‘errant’ mate. She telegraphed InuYasha a glare.

“Is that true, Kagome?” Yuka pressed.

Kagome managed a weak smile as she turned back to her lifelong friends. “Uh, well . . .”

“Oi!” InuYasha exclaimed, his glower turning to bore into hers. “What the fuck do you mean, ‘uh, well’?”

“InuYasha!” she hissed, leaning closer to him. “You’re not helping!”

“You can’t hide my pup!” he bellowed as Kagome wished fervently that the ground beneath her would just open up and swallow her, just this once . . .

Standing in the pouring rain with every single ear listening to her as she tried to find a way to avoid further humiliation, Kagome squared her shoulders and nodded once. “I wasn’t trying to, but I didn’t really want to announce it at our wedding,” she gritted out before turning on her heel and striding toward the house with as much dignity as she could muster. Under the circumstances, it wasn’t much.

Breaking into a sprint as soon as she closed the back door behind herself, she darted through the house and up the stairs to the sanctuary of the quiet bedroom. With a groan, Kagome sank down on the edge of Sango’s bed, staring at her hands as the wet silk on her skin made her shiver slightly. A soft knock on the door drew a sigh from the new bride. “Go away, InuYasha . . . I think you’ve said more than enough for one day.”

Mrs. Higurashi peeked into the room and extended a towel as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Well, I’m not InuYasha . . . so can I come in?”

Managing a small smile for her mother, Kagome nodded. “I’m sorry, Mama. This is a disaster . . .”

“It’s not so bad, Kagome . . .”

Kagome shook her head. “I wasn’t trying to hide the baby . . . I just . . . it’s my wedding day, and . . .” shrugging helplessly, Kagome struggled for the right words. “It’s not so much that InuYasha announced it to everyone,” she said quietly. “I guess it’s just that this whole day has felt . . . odd.”

“Odd how?” her mother questioned quietly, unpinning Kagome’s hair and massaging the wet locks with the towel.

Again Kagome shook her head. “I just . . . I wish this was over. It seems so . . . fake.”

Mrs. Higurashi smiled as she held out Kagome’s change of clothes. “Because in your heart you’re already committed to InuYasha, because of his making you his mate?”

Kagome blinked in surprise and nodded, pausing as she tugged off the clinging wet silk. “Yeah.”

Mrs. Higurashi shrugged. “Then pay no mind to the others and what they might say. Just concentrate on you and InuYasha, and let the rest of them disappear.”

Kagome finally smiled. “You’re right . . . though I could do without the rain,” she admitted as she wrinkled her nose.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed then chuckled. “And I could have done without half of the guests down there . . . Do you know any of them?”

“A few . . . Sesshoumaru said they are acknowledging InuYasha . . .” Kagome stepped over to the window as she buttoned the white cotton under-dress. The bright blue tents only added to the overall graying effect of the scene playing out below. InuYasha must have gone back into the tent because she didn’t see him. She sighed. in the few minutes since she’d come inside, the rain had escalated into a steady torrent.

The slight smile that had lingered on her lips faded as she stared toward the open edge of the tent canopy. The tall youkai who stood there with a woman . . . “Katosan . . .” she whispered, eyes flaring wide. Did InuYasha know? What was he doing here? And that woman . . . Narrowing her gaze as she leaned closer to the window, Kagome refused to believe what her eyes told her was true.

Mrs. Higurashi dropped the ceremonial kimono over Kagome’s shoulders as she stepped back from the window. ‘ _Ayamakita . . . why is she here?_ ’

A vicious anger flared to life deep in Kagome’s chest, outrage that she would dare show her face anywhere near InuYasha again. Brushing aside her mother’s ministrations with gentle but firm hands, Kagome stalked toward the door, holding up the flowing garments since she hadn’t bothered grabbing her shoes, either. Unmindful of the fact that she was only half-dressed, Kagome deliberately strode through the house and out the back door, back into the rain, her goal clear. If no one else was going to point out that _she_ had no right to be here, Kagome would.

Stopping directly before both Katosan and Ayamakita, Kagome didn’t mince words as she spoke in a low tone, a deliberate tone. “I want you both to leave,” she said, “now.”

Ayamakita offered Kagome a tepid smile as she dug into her purse. Katosan nodded once. “Not pleased to see us, I take it?”

“No, not especially. If InuYasha sees you, he’ll probably try some Tetsusaiga shoving, and I don’t think I’ll stop him . . . and you,” she continued, shifting her glare to the woman. “You’d better never go anywhere near him again unless you really do want to be purified. The only reason I didn’t before was because you had your filthy hands all over my mate.”

A fleeting glimpse of acute embarrassment as well as a vague hint of amusement crossed the audacious woman’s features as she nodded slightly in acknowledgement. “I’m sorry for that, Kagome . . . I was young and reckless back then, though perhaps I ought to thank you. If you hadn’t purified me . . . Katosan and I may not have found each other again.”

Kagome wasn’t pacified. “Please just go.”

Katosan’s smile was tight, contrived, as he glanced over her head at the others who were close enough to hear Kagome’s words. “As you wish, Kagome-sama . . . However you may wish to see what my mate has for you.”

Kagome ignored the hush that fell over the gathering once more. InuYasha pulled her back, stepping in front of her. “I told that bastard of a brother of mine to get rid of you. Since he didn’t, then I sure as hell will,” he growled, hand on Tetsusaiga, ready to draw it.

Stepping around him, she pushed InuYasha back, unwilling to let him stand that close to the lynx youkai.

Ayamakita pulled a manila envelope from her bag and extended it to Kagome. “Here you are. You earned them.”

InuYasha reached out and snatched the document out Ayamakita’s hand before Kagome could reach for it. Staring at it with a dark glower, he finally shoved them under Kagome’s nose and demanded, “Explain yourself, wench. Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this?”

Snatching the papers out of his hand, she looked them over with a frown of her own as she stared at her diploma. She did it. She’d finished school. “My exam results? Why do you have them?”

Ayamakita sighed then smiled vaguely. “I’m Mrs. Uneomou.”

“ _You?_ ” Kagome repeated, unable to believe what the lynx claimed.

“ _Uneomou?_ As in, _Dr_. Uneomou?” InuYasha echoed as his eyes flashed up to meet Katosan just before he turned his head to locate his brother. “Oh, damn . . .”

“Is something wrong, InuYasha-sama?” Katosan asked with an indistinctly confused expression.

“That fucking bastard . . . _Sesshoumaru!_ ” he bellowed, whipping Tetsusaiga out of the scabbard as he stomped toward his infuriating sibling. A few female screams pierced the otherwise silent crowd as people stepped aside, leaving an open path between InuYasha and his target.

“Something bothering you, baka?”

“Keh! Not for long,” he growled, his intent obvious as he tightened his grip on Tetsusaiga.

Kagome ran over to stop InuYasha before he did something he’d regret later. “InuYasha!” She wasn’t sure what set him off, but obviously Sesshoumaru understood.

“Put that away, InuYasha. It’s bad manners to fight on your wedding day, or didn’t you know that?”

“Bastard . . . You _knew_ Katosan was the doctor, and you didn’t say a damn thing! Hell, you encouraged me to take Kagome to him!”

“InuYasha!” Kagome hollered again, absently hearing what InuYasha was accusing his brother of having done but more worried that her mother was going to die of utter embarrassment. She grabbed his arm and made him look at her.

“Wench!”

“No!”

“Damn it!”

“ _No!_ ”

“Fuck—”

“Absolutely not!”

With a frustrated growl and rolling his eyes in disgust, the hanyou resheathed Tetsusaiga. “One of these days, Sesshoumaru . . .”

“I’m sure,” Sesshoumaru remarked dryly.

“Kagome! You didn’t tell us that he has a sword!” Eri accused as the girls ran over to her again.

“It’s so big!” Ayumi exclaimed, leaning over slightly to stare at the dormant sword.

“Show us again!” Yuka begged.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “Hell, no!”

“InuYasha!” Kagome complained at his perceived lack of viable manners.

“Damn it, wench . . .” When he trailed off, Kagome glanced over at InuYasha again only to find him staring at her with his mouth hanging slightly open. With a slight frown, she looked down and stifled a groan. The white cotton under-dress was drenched from the rain and clinging to her entirely too well.

Grabbing her hand and dragging her back to the house with a marked snort of disapproval, InuYasha didn’t stop until he closed the bedroom door and waved his hand at the closet. “Don’t care what, wench, but you’re changing out of that right now.”

Kagome started to argue when she noticed the brightness in his gaze, the heightened color in his cheeks. With a smile, she stepped over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as the irritation she’d felt just moments before drained away. “I hate this,” she admitted.

His ears twitched. “Do you?”

Nodding slowly, she leaned against him, hands on his shoulders to brace herself as she leaned up on tiptoe to kiss him. She didn’t have to look to know that his ears were twitching again. “Take me home, InuYasha?”

He thought it over for about ten seconds before yanking the door back open and peeking into the hallway. Satisfied that they weren’t going to get caught, he led her across the hallway to Souta’s room and let go of her long enough to open the window and hop onto the sill. “They’ll never notice we’re gone . . . at least not until I’ve had a chance to lock all the doors and windows. Do you think a moat would keep them the hell away from us? Maybe that bastard of a brother of mine knows where I can find some piranha youkai . . .” She took his hand with a soft giggle at his cryptic planning, and let him drag her onto his back as he hopped down, careful to keep to the shadows of the falling evening.

Speeding through the outskirts of the shrine grounds, InuYasha easily sailed over the fence and into the forest. Kagome smiled as more rain drenched them both, laughed as InuYasha picked up speed. As though she were just waking up for the first time all day, she hugged him tight and laid her cheek against his shoulder. “InuYasha?”

“Hmm?”

“That was the worst wedding, ever.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

She snuggled closer against him, the warmth of his body keeping the chill of her soaking clothes at bay. “I’m not . . . we didn’t need a wedding to make anything official, did we?”

He didn’t answer, but when she lifted her head to look at him, he was smiling.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Tamagushi_** :  
>  _A type of offering presented on the occasion of paying formal worship to a deity. Yû (stringy fibers of a tree, about 30cm. in length) or shide (zig-zag strips of cloth or paper) are attached to a branch of sacred tree. Tamagushi are sometimes distributed to worshipers as amulets_.
> 
>  ** _Sansankudo_** :  
>  _“Three times Three” where the bride and groom each consume sake in a Shinto wedding ceremony, which includes the exchanging of nuptial cups of the marriage oath_.
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from Kagome:_**  
>  _Thank GOD that’s over_. . .


	90. New Beginnings

InuYasha shifted his hand as he studied the latest contracts that had come into Telekazaan. Stretched out on the sofa with Kagome lying on his chest as Shippou sat at the coffee table with his homework, InuYasha cracked a little smile as his gaze shifted away from the documents to his mate, curled on her side with her cheek against his heart and her arms wrapped protectively over her distended stomach. At six months pregnant, Kagome was happy enough to doze on him when he brought work home from the office, and he didn’t mind having to work around her as he hummed the lullaby under his breath.

He shook his head. It wasn’t so difficult, he had to admit. All that was really required of him was his signature on new contracts and stuff like that, though he had been considering taking over the meetings with some of the potential clients, mostly because Sesshoumaru had hinted that it wouldn’t be wise to send ‘the hot-headed half-breed’ in to negotiate. It seemed like they’d been receiving more calls lately. In fact, if it kept up, he’d have to hire at least ten new men to stay even with demand. They’d broken even financially last quarter, and with any luck, Sesshoumaru would be signing over the company when the next reports were sent in.

Leaning his head from side to side, he winced as a knotted muscle in his shoulder protested the movement. The security firm had a full gym in the basement where the men trained in order to keep up to standard between jobs. InuYasha had taken on one of the guys this morning, and while he won, the man had given him decent competition.

With a sigh, Shippou stowed his homework away and scampered to his feet. “Can I go play outside?”

Letting the papers dangle in his hand beside the sofa, InuYasha used his other hand to put his index finger to his lips to shush the kitsune then nodded. “You’d better be home before dark, runt,” he remarked as Shippou ran off to get his boots. Rolling his eyes as the kitsune slammed the front door behind himself, InuYasha leaned over to drop the contracts on the table. Kagome awoke with a jerk and leaned up to stare sleepily at her mate. “You get enough rest?”

She nodded and yawned. “Where’s Shippou?”

“Outside. Remind me to tweak him for slamming the door.”

“Hrumph.”

He grinned as he rubbed her belly. She made a face. “I’m not Buddha,” she grumbled as she sat up and pushed his hands away.

“Oi! Where do you think you’re going?” he complained as she stood up.

“To the bathroom,” she replied as she kept moving. “Your son won’t stay off my bladder.”

“My _daughter_ is as sneaky as you are,” he argued. “They said at your last visit that she’s a girl,” he called after her.

“They said that they couldn’t tell because _he_ was hiding his parts during the ultrasound,” she called back, her voice muffled by the bathroom door.

“Believe what you want, wench. She’s a _girl_.”

“You’re living in denial, baka!” Kagome taunted. “He’s a _boy!_ ”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted as he headed for the kitchen. “If I have to make dinner, you’re eating ramen,” he warned.

Kagome shuffled into the kitchen after him. “Stand aside, dog-boy. Ramen. Keh!”

Hiding his grin, InuYasha grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and leaned back against the counter as Kagome dug out the pup’s favorite food: frozen pizza. “We should get started on the nursery,” she commented as she turned on the oven dial.

InuYasha wrinkled his nose. “Do we have to?”

“Yes,” she insisted. “Everything’s white in there. He’ll think he’s in a jail.”

Having gotten acquainted with the fundamentals of the judicial system because of his business, InuYasha rolled his eyes. “They’re not white, wench,” he pointed out, “and _she_ won’t care.”

“He’s a boy, and he’ll have cute little ears, just like yours,” she predicted, as she stood on tiptoe to rub InuYasha’s ears. “So will you help me?”

“What’s in it for me?”

She grinned. “We can think of something, can’t we? Isn’t tonight the full moon?”

Narrowing his gaze on her as heat stole up his face, InuYasha snorted. “Keh.” Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close only to receive a good kick against his thigh. “Watch it,” he growled playfully, earning him another decent kick as Kagome giggled. “How about we think of something for me now _and_ later?”

Kagome patted his cheek as she pulled away to put the pizza in the oven. “Wallpaper first, then play or we’ll never get it done.”

He sighed. “And who says that wasn’t the plan?”

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“Here.”

Sesshoumaru glanced up and took the paper cup from Nibori, who flopped into the uncomfortable chair beside his father. Staring at the coffee, the tai-youkai sighed. “You might as well go for now,” he told Nibori. “If memory serves, this takes a very long while.”

“That’s all right. It’s not every day I can stop claiming to be an only child,” he quipped just before turning to his speculative gaze at his father. “Why are you out here instead of in there with Mother?”

That earned Nibori a sidelong glance. “I thought I’d wait out here with you.”

Nibori nodded. “Mother kicked you out, didn’t she?”

“Absolutely.”

“Did you call Uncle?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not?’

“Think I want that baka here? He’s worse than a pup.”

Nibori nodded again and stood up. “I’ll take care of it,” he remarked as he headed for the door.

Staring into the swirling, oily liquid in the cup, Sesshoumaru frowned.

It was easy to believe that it was over, that he’d managed to repair the past. ‘ _But why, then, do I suffer this unease? Something is coming. It is not finished_.’

The most troubling thing was that there were answers in that ancient scroll. Whenever he touched it, he could feel the secrets, and though he’d never demean himself to opening his brother’s missive, he couldn’t help but be compelled to know what sort of truths it contained.

‘ _The will to change one’s destiny . . . I cannot meet with failure_.’

Setting aside the tepid coffee, Sesshoumaru stared at the cover of a magazine carelessly thrown on the table beside him. The picturesque scene of a quaint little village reminded him of times long past, of secrets that were better left buried in the recesses of his mind.   The memories he sought to forget, and the miserable knowledge that even now, they still lingered.

 _The woman exterminator was the next to fall. Though her death wasn’t caused by anything InuYasha had done, the damning of the miko’s voice had only served to ensure the slayer’s death. Versed in modern medicines and possessing a rudimentary knowledge of common afflictions, surely she had understood the situation. Modern medicine would have dubbed it an ‘ectopic pregnancy’—the same thing that had nearly cost her life this time. The miko had known. The guilt in her eyes later had convinced him of this—the guilt that she had been unable to say what it was; the guilt that she hadn’t been able to save her friend. Sesshoumaru hadn’t been there when the exterminator died. He was there when they buried her_.

 _The strength of humans, he realized at the time, was their weakness, as well. The love they felt, the desire to protect, and ultimately, the blame they inevitably cast upon themselves . . . that was what had killed the monk_.

 _InuYasha left the miko, running off to Musashi, to reclaim the birthright in hopes that this gesture could somehow repair the damage he’d done with his foolish wish. The monk left in the night. Curious to see where he would go, wondering why it was that a human as clever as the monk could sink into such a state of despair, Sesshoumaru had followed him. Perhaps that had been his biggest mistake_ . . .

 _The monk traveled to the temple where he’d received his instruction. In the depression left by his father, Sesshoumaru watched as the monk stabbed a ragged hole in his hand, trying to reawaken the kazaana. Repulsed by his actions yet compelled to watch, Sesshoumaru bore witness to the black art, the power so terrifying that he had drawn away a little further. The fool succeeded in returning the kazaana to his hand. Then he had turned it on himself_.

 _Returning to the village, Sesshoumaru realized right away that the miko was gone. It hadn’t been difficult to figure out that she had run after InuYasha. After the baka’s foolish wish, the well had ceased to exist, the tie that bound the two worlds. As had happened when the jewel purified this time, it was the same then. The ground had simply closed in, as though the well had never existed_.

 _What had already been done was too strong to counteract. He arrived in time to see the last semblance of decency taken from InuYasha. While InuYasha was facing down Norimitsu, the miko arrived and shot one of her pathetic arrows at the youkai. Norimitsu laughed at her weak attempt and went after her. In his concern for the miko’s safety, InuYasha took his focus off Norimitsu long enough for the youkai to alter his course, and within an instant and a woman’s foolish heartbeat, she had thrown herself between the two, and she was the one who fell. In his rage, InuYasha managed a Kaze no Kizu, and the flames connected with Norimitsu’s leg. The injured youkai ran away as InuYasha held the miko’s torn body in his arms_.

 _Tenseiga pulsed on his hip. Staring at the sword, drawing it out, he stepped forward slowly, cautiously, to stand over the miko, over his brother. “Save her,” InuYasha rasped out, voice weak, thick, heavy with the weight of pure emotion. “Please_.”

 _“Why would you save her? You curse her, you mock her . . . you suffered her to lose her only way back to her home, to her people_.”

“ _You want me to beg?” InuYasha snarled, eyes bright in a wash of tears, tears that Sesshoumaru hadn’t understood then.   “I’ll beg. I’ll_ plead _. Just save her_.”

 _Sesshoumaru lifted Tenseiga, the blade throbbing with the desire to save her. Something stopped him, the whisper of a gentle voice, no more than a murmur on the wind. ‘Let me go . . . I can’t save him . . . I couldn’t save them . . . Shippou died because I couldn’t call for help . . . Sango died because I couldn’t tell them what I thought was wrong . . . Miroku . . . his soul is dying because I can’t make him talk, and InuYasha . . . I wasn’t the one who could save him, at all . . . and he’s better off without me_ . . .’

 _Conceding to her wishes, the miko held her sway. Sesshoumaru dropped Tenseiga into the scabbard as InuYasha cursed him_. _What he hadn’t realized then was that, in letting the miko’s tired soul move on, he’d condemned his brother, as well, and in the dark, in the passage of centuries, that one moment in time, when he could have saved two lives by saving one that didn’t wish to be saved . . . He should have listened to Tenseiga_.

T _he miko and the hanyou. The one would have healed the other, and the latter would have healed the first_.

“Father?”

Sesshoumaru blinked as the memory faded.

“You looked awfully deep in thought,” Nibori remarked as she sat back down.

Sesshoumaru flicked his wrist to adjust his watch. “It was nothing,” he remarked.

Nibori nodded. “Of course, Father.”

“Did you reach your uncle?”

“Nope. I left a message on his voicemail, though.”

The pleasant midi-intonation of Nibori’s cell phone rang, and he stood again, mumbling something about hospital rules as he strode from the waiting room again. Sesshoumaru smiled faintly as he deliberated the soundness of returning to Leikizu’s room. Sending him away after he left a sixth nurse trembling and dissolved in a bundle of raw nerves from his cold stare alone, Leikizu had demanded that he leave. ‘ _Modern youkai_ ,’ he thought as his smile widened just a little, ‘ _are far too weak_ . . .’

He sighed, figuring that he was probably better off where he was, at least until Leikizu’s pain killers kicked in . . .

 

 

: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Sango paced the living room floor of the small house, shooting glances at the clock and willing it to move faster. Feeling like nothing but a huge bundle of raw nerves, she drew a steadying breath and told herself to be patient.

“You’re going to worry yourself sick, Sango,” Miroku pointed out calmly as he set the evening newspaper aside and patted the sofa beside him. They’d moved into Kagome’s little apartment house behind the shrine but at the moment, Sango was stalking around staring daggers at the creeping hands on the clock.

Sango muttered under her breath as she peeked at the clock again, completely ignoring her husband’s invitation to sit with him With a dejected sigh, she shook her head and continued stalking across the floor, shooting surreptitious glances at the offending timepiece and silently cursing the slow-moving hands.

Miroku’s soft chuckle did little to soothe her rapidly fraying nerves. “Darling Sango, your antics are highly amusing but you really ought to sit down and wait.”

She shot him a dark look for that as she strode into the kitchen and jerked open the utility drawer. Rifling through it, she finally located her quarry and held pulled two ‘AA’ sized batteries out of the economy pack before dropping the rest into the drawer and slamming it closed.

Miroku wisely remained silent as he watched Sango pull the clock off the wall and change the batteries. “What time does your watch say?” she asked as she fiddled with the set dial.

“Exactly the same as the clock you just changed the batteries in,” he replied as he stood up. “Just a minute longer, Sango. Calm down.” She let him take the clock and watched him hang it back on the wall. “If you’ll recall, you just put fresh batteries in the clock before we started this.”

Sango made a face and slapped the batteries onto the counter. True enough. She’d insisted that he do it when she’d gone into the bathroom. Kagome had told her often enough, though, that even in this modern age, things still broke without any hint. Maybe the batteries Miroku had used were dead to start with . . .

Miroku checked his watch and grinned. “All right. You can check it now.”

That was all she waited to hear. Breaking into a light sprint as she headed for the bathroom, she suddenly stopped and swung around to face her husband, eyes widening as fear surfaced. “I . . . I can’t . . . you do it.”

Miroku’s chuckle did soothe her this time as he came to her and drew her into a warm embrace. “Sango . . . even if it isn’t what we want to know, it’s all right. It’ll happen. Trust me.”

She sighed and leaned against his shoulder. “I know . . . I just really want it to be . . .”

Kissing her forehead gently, Miroku sighed, too. “I know. Now do you want to look at it?”

Sango pushed away to stare into Miroku’s beautiful eyes and nodded slowly. “All right.”

Leaning around the corner, he flicked on the bathroom light and stepped back. “Ladies first.”

Sango swallowed hard. Facing down powerful youkai wasn’t nearly as difficult, she discovered, as it was to make her leaden feet step into the bathroom. The small plastic device sat on the edge of the sink. Sango’s heart caught in her throat as her blood pounded in her ears. She reached out for it then stopped, hesitated. Miroku’s arms wrapped around her waist, offering her a reassuring squeeze. “You can do it,” he whispered.

She nodded. Steeling her resolve again, her fingers trembled as she edged closer. That last bit of space that separated her fingertips from the target seemed unbreechable. Closing her eyes, she grasped it with a sharp gasp, as though the one gesture had been the most difficult thing she had ever had to do.

She’d thought it had been difficult, enduring the three months of waiting after the surgery before they could try. She thought it had been difficult, having to learn things about her body that still confused her, a little. She thought it had been difficult, learning how to predict her ovulation cycles so that they had a fighting chance of conceiving a child. She’d learned more about the human body in the last few months than she had ever realized there was to know. But no, the most difficult part was the consuming fear that she’d failed this time, even if they could and would try again.

Clutching the tester to her chest, she couldn’t quite make herself look at it. Miroku understood and gently, he pulled her hand away from her body to look for the results when she could not. Clearing his throat a few times before he could speak, he squeezed her hand gently. “Sango . . . you’d better look for yourself.”

Eyes flashing open as she turned her head to stare at her husband’s oddly choked tone, Sango searched in vain for some sort of clue in his face. His expression gave away nothing.

“All right,” she whispered, hesitantly letting her gaze fall onto the home pregnancy test in her hand. Her gasp filled the bathroom, echoing off the walls . . .

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

Kagome stifled a giggle as InuYasha tried to press the stubborn wallpaper into place. Working for three hours, and they had yet to get one strip to hang correctly, and though she had mentioned to him that the rolls had come with instructions, the stubborn hanyou refused to read them. She’d made the mistake of wrinkling her nose at the slight odor that was emitted from the pre-pasted paper once it was wet. He had intercepted it and insisted that she not subject herself to the fumes since, if it affected her, then it might affect his _daughter_. Kagome had assured him that his _son_ was fine. InuYasha had snapped back that his _daughter_ was bound to have a more sensitive nose since most females did. Kagome had only been able to roll her eyes at that and had let him take over even though she had pointed out once more that the child was a _boy_ ; she could feel it.

“You can’t tell me that there’s not someone you can pay to do this shit,” InuYasha grouched as he tried to hold both corners of the top and flatted down the center with his hip. Kagome blanked her features as he glanced back at her. Sitting in the carved wooden rocking chair as she watched, she managed to smile without laughing outright at the absolute frustration on his adorable face.

“Well, sure,” she agreed easily enough. “But I wanted to do this, ourselves.”

Slowly moving his hands to test the paper’s adhesion, InuYasha slowly stepped away from the wall, crossing his arms over his chest rather proudly as he surveyed the first strip of paper. “It’s crooked,” Shippou remarked as he glanced up from his K’nex building set.

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted. “It is not!”

Kagome leaned her head to the side, critically eyeing the strip. “No, I think Shippou’s right . . . it’s crooked.”

“You both need your eyes checked, wench. It’s perfectly straight, and—”

His tirade was cut short as the paper suddenly fell off the wall, draping over her mate as she giggled. Shippou did, too, and with a frustrated growl, InuYasha jerked Tetsusaiga free and slashed at the offending wallpaper.

“And that was necessary because . . . ?” Kagome asked dryly.

“It _attacked_ me,” InuYasha grumbled as he pushed the ripped paper aside and resheathed Tetsusaiga.

Shippou rolled his eyes and gathered up his construction toys, hurrying out of the room and mumbling something about InuYasha ‘coming after his toy next.’

Pinning Kagome with a significant look, InuYasha propped his hands on his hips and snorted. “You call someone to fix this or I will.”

She grinned. “Fine, in the morning,” she agreed as she stooped down to retrieve the pan of water they’d been using to dip the wallpaper. “Throw away the paper you destroyed, all right?” she called over her shoulder as she carefully carried the pan to the bathroom.

“Keh!”

InuYasha stomped past the bathroom door with a wad of wallpaper in his hands. Her smile spread. It amazed her, how well he was adapting to her time. Though he still suffered the occasional headache from too overtaxing his hanyou senses, those weren’t occurring as often as they had when he first started work. It was one thing, for him to be subjected to the somewhat isolated shrine, but when he’d been so enclosed by it all day every day, it had taken a toll on him. Still he never complained about that. She had a feeling it was because, while he missed the wide open feel of Sengoku Jidai, everyone he cared about was here.

Even stranger was the odd bond that was slowly developing between the brothers. Though she doubted either one of them would ever admit to caring about the other, there was an undeniable sense of mutual respect, and even when InuYasha grumbled and complained about having to go to his brother’s mansion for any reason at all, he wasn’t nearly as reluctant to go. In fact, to her knowledge, InuYasha had only drawn Tetsusaiga on Sesshoumaru once or twice since their disaster of a wedding, and that, in her opinion, was huge.

Turning off the tap and setting the pan upside down to dry, Kagome pushed herself up on the side of the tub, pausing just long enough to dry her hands before she hurried out of the bathroom.

Standing in the kitchen with his ankles crossed as he leaned against the sink eating ramen, he pointed his chopsticks at the phone on the wall. “Voicemail is blinking,” he remarked around his mouthful of food.

Kagome made a face as she hit the retrieval button. “So why didn’t you check it? And stop talking with food in your mouth.”

“I knew you’d do it,” he pointed out as he stuffed more ramen into his mouth, “and you complain when I don’t talk. Make up your mind, wench.”

“Disgusting,” she retorted as she waited for the messages to play.

“Uncle? Aunt Kagome? This is Nibori . . . I’m calling from the hospital. Mother’s in labor, and Father could really use the calming influence Uncle provides . . . at your earliest convenience, of course.”

Kagome chortled at the idea of ‘calming influence’ and ‘InuYasha’ in the same sentence. Nibori, she was sure, was trying to instigate something . . .

“Hmm,” InuYasha drawled as he tossed his cup into the trash. “Too bad we’re busy the rest of the night. Poor bastard will just have to live without me.”

Kagome waved a hand as Miroku’s voice came from the answering machine. “Kagome? InuYasha? This is Miroku. Sango and I wanted you both to be the first to know . . . Sango’s pregnant . . .”

“That’s a bad omen,” InuYasha snorted as he wrapped his arms around Kagome’s belly, pulling her back against him as he buried his nose against her neck. “Like the world needs more perverts.”

She savored the feel of being in his arms for a moment before she pulled away with a sigh. “Come on. We can stop by Sango and Miroku’s before we go to the hospital.”

“No, we can’t,” he argued, “because we ain’t going.”

“All right,” she agreed. “You stay here, and I’ll go.”

‘The infamous pout surfaced on his face. “But you promised,” he pointed out.

“We’ll have time for that when we get home,” she assured him.

“Keh! Not for what I have in mind,” he grumbled.

Kagome grinned and kissed his cheek. “Shippou! Come here!”

The kitsune ran into the kitchen moments later with Baka in tow.

“Leikizu is having her baby, and we were going to go to the hospital. Do you want to go to Sango and Miroku’s while we’re gone?”

Shippou shrugged as he took off to get his shoes.   “Nah, I’ll go to grandma’s. She promised she’d buy more pocky for me.”

She didn’t miss the slight hint of poutiness behind the kitsune’s tone, either. Convinced that the child was eating far too much pocky, she’d limited him to one package per day—which wasn’t something that pleased him.

InuYasha heaved a sigh designed to let her know just what he thought of her perceived cruelty. “You know, InuYasha . . .” she mused as she followed him out of the kitchen. He sat on the sofa to pull on the shoes he hated. “Maybe we ought to consider getting our driver’s licenses? I mean, we’ll have this baby soon enough . . . just how many of us do you plan on carrying around?”

InuYasha snorted. “You make me sound weak, wench,” he grumbled. “No cars. They’re noisy and smelly and I don’t trust anything that moves by itself and doesn’t breathe.”

She grinned. “You’ve ridden buses.”

His expression told her that the discussion was closed. Kagome laughed. He made that so easy for her to do, and she loved him for that.

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“What the hell is taking so fucking long?” InuYasha growled.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Be not a fool, baka. It takes time to give birth.”

InuYasha scowled at Kagome, who was patiently reading a magazine. “Oi, wench, you’d better not take this long.”

“InuYasha . . . I’d stop now, if I were you,” Miroku commented as he leaned in closer to his friend. “Kagome can still purify you.”

“Keh! She could but she wouldn’t.”

“And why’s that?” Miroku asked, noting the self-satisfied grin on the hanyou’s face.

InuYasha shrugged. “No reason . . . just certain side effect she doesn’t like as much . . .”

“InuYasha!” Kagome complained as her cheeks reddened.

“Side effects?”

“Nothing,” Kagome insisted, dropping her magazine on the table as she stood up and grabbed Sango’s arm. “Come on, Sango.”

“What side effects?” Miroku asked again.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Spare me the sordid details of things I’m better of not hearing.”

Miroku sighed and stood up. “I’m going to get coffee. Want some?”

InuYasha made a face. It was the one drink that he couldn’t abide at all. The smell was too strong, too overpowering, and he’d end up sneezing the rest of the day if he was subjected to it long enough.

Nibori left with Miroku as InuYasha regarded his stoic brother with a measure of amusement. The normally untouchable youkai looked like he’d been dragged through hell. “You look terrible,” he remarked.

“Thank you, baka.”

“Any time, bastard.”

Staring around the empty waiting room, Sesshoumaru finally sighed. “It didn’t take nearly this long when Nibori was born,” he admitted quietly.

InuYasha was caught off guard by his brother’s quiet statement. “Keh. You ain’t got a thing to worry about. Leikizu puts up with you, doesn’t she? This is nothing compared to that.”

“At least I didn’t drag my mate away from her own wedding reception.”

InuYasha snorted. “It was her idea.”

“Ugh . . . you really _have_ defiled the miko,” he stated with open distain.

“Mr. Inotaishou?”

Two heads turned at the sound of that name. InuYasha looked away quickly enough, since the nurse was obviously talking to Sesshoumaru. “My wife?”

The nurse smiled. “She’s fine, and she’d like to see you.”

Sesshoumaru nodded and followed the nurse out of the waiting room.

InuYasha shook his head and sat back, tapping his foot impatiently. ‘ _Good_ ,’ he thought with a slight grin, ‘ _as soon as Kagome gets back in here . . . we’re leaving . . . she made a deal with me, after all . . ._ ’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Nibori_** :  
>  _Wait . . . do I have a brother or a sister?_


	91. Small Blessings

InuYasha glowered at the door with narrow-eyed calculation. ‘ _What the hell . . . she’s been in there for hours . . . she could have birthed ten babies by now_ ,’ he thought with a menacing glare directed at anyone stupid enough to garner his attention.

Sesshoumaru glanced up from the infant girl in his arm and inclined his head at the hanyou as Nibori and Miroku sat down on either side of him.

“What?” InuYasha growled, staring at the two.

“Just to make sure you’re not going to try breaking into Aunt Kagome’s room again,” Nibori said with a chuckle.

Leikizu shifted the baby she held up to her shoulder. “Be easy, InuYasha. These things take time, and the first one normally always takes longer.”

InuYasha snorted as he leaned forward to straighten himself up in his chair. Miroku and Nibori leaned forward, too, ready to restrain InuYasha if need be.

InuYasha glared as Sesshoumaru chuckled. Of course _he_ was enjoying this. He’d done nothing but give InuYasha grief since he’d had to escort InuYasha from Kagome’s side. He hadn’t meant to growl at the doctor. He hadn’t meant to dig his claws into the bed beside Kagome—and get the shock of his life when he had inadvertently dug said claws into one of the wires that were hidden in the mattress. The worst of it, though, was the drawing of Tetsusaiga as he had demanded that someone do something about the incredible pain he could smell coming off Kagome in waves. Sango had run to get the only person who could physically remove InuYasha from the room, that double-damned bastard of a brother of his.

It had amused him, though, when Sesshoumaru had come back into the waiting room, pale-faced and shell-shocked, to announce to those assembled that Leikizu had given birth to twin daughters. Identical twin daughters, one of whom had a temper that InuYasha just knew would one day rival his own. Keiko and Kumiko were now close to three months old, and they were promising to be quite a handful already, and since Sesshoumaru only had one hand to start with . . . InuYasha grinned to himself, not feeling sorry for the poor bastard in the least.

“Mr. Inotaishou?”

“Yes?” three voices answered. InuYasha shot the other two dirty looks. The nurse looked duly befuddled as InuYasha stood. “Is it Kagome? What’s wrong? Is she all right?”

The nurse nodded and smiled. “Mother and baby are fine . . . You have a lovely little boy.”

It took a moment for the nurse’s words to sink in, and when they did, he frowned. “Oi! ‘Lovely’ and ‘boy’ ought not be used in the same fucking sentence,” he growled. “Are you sure he’s not a girl?”

The nurse’s befuddled look morphed into one of concern that perhaps InuYasha was losing his mind. “Never mind,” he grumbled as he pushed past the nurse.

“But your wife has been taken to her room!” she called out.

“Keh!” Sniffing the chemically cleansed air, he made quick work of following Kagome’s scent to the threshold of her room. Drawing a deep breath, he started into the room only to be stopped by the thin sound of a very unhappy pup.

Kagome’s voice, soft and tired but happy, drifted to him. Singing the lullaby he’d taught her so long ago, he leaned against the doorframe with a slight smile lending a brightness to his gaze. Sango noticed him lingering in the doorway and she came over, taking hold of his arm, and led him into the room. Mrs. Higurashi was putting some of Kagome’s things in the small closet. She stopped long enough to smile at him before resuming her task.

Kagome trailed off as she smiled at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Cradling the pup to her breast, she was glowing, absolutely content. “Come meet your son, InuYasha.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Did you double check? Wouldn’t want my daughter thinking—”

“InuYasha!” Sango scolded.

He relented as he sank down on the bed beside Kagome. Leaning toward her to get a better look at his pup, he felt the curious sting of tears rising behind his eyes. He hadn’t stopped to think about how small the pup really would be. Everything about him was , well, _tiny_. Fingers that weren’t even as long as InuYasha’s claws with perfectly formed little claws of his own, miniature lips that were busy rooting out his first meal, unruly mane of silvery hair . . . even his tiny triangle-shaped ears were minute. So far, the only ‘ _big’_ thing InuYasha had noticed about the pup was his ability to cry . . . “He’ll do, wench,” he said, clearing the gruffness out of his throat.

Kagome pushed him playfully. “He’s beautiful, baka . . . he looks exactly like you.”

InuYasha blushed. “Ain’t a damn thing about me _that_ small,” he griped.

Kagome shot him a sidelong look as her cheeks reddened, too.   “I get to name him, remember?”

InuYasha made a face. After being unable to reach any sort of compromise over potential names, they’d decided that if the baby was a girl, InuYasha would choose the name, and if the baby was a boy, Kagome would. InuYasha was set to argue that now, though. “That’s not really fair, wench. I didn’t get to name Shippou—”

She rolled her eyes.   “Because Shippou was already named.”

“—and I _obviously_ didn’t get a say in the baby’s sex.”

“Oh, kami . . .”

Sango laughed. “We’ll leave you two alone now,” she announced as she and Mrs. Higurashi kissed Kagome’s forehead and the still-unnamed baby and quietly left.

Heaving a long-suffering sigh, InuYasha shook his head slowly as he reached out to touch the pup’s hand. The tiny hand opened only to curl around InuYasha’s finger. He grinned as the strange prickling sensation behind his eyes grew a little worse. “All right, wench. Let’s hear it.”

She smiled as she stared at the pup. “I want to name him Inuakamori.”

“Dog of the Red Forest,” InuYasha mused as he stared at the squirming bundle that held fast to his finger. Words couldn’t make it past the suspect lump that rose in his throat. He nodded as he leaned over to kiss Kagome’s temple.

“Let’s see him.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes as the magic of the moment disappeared. Sesshoumaru strode into the room with Leikizu. Shooting to his feet, InuYasha glared at his brother. “Back off, bastard. You can’t just walk in on my mate when she’s nursing the pup.” Glancing back over his shoulder, InuYasha snorted. “Cover yourself, wench!”

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. “Baka. I’ve come to see your son, not your mate’s . . . parts.”

Kagome pulled the pup off her breast and closed her gown. Furious that his meal was disrupted, the pup screamed. InuYasha flattened his ears and carefully took Inuakamori from his mother. Opening his great golden eyes to stare at his father, Inuakamori blinked in surprise to find InuYasha staring down at him.

“Good,” Sesshoumaru commented as he inspected the child over InuYasha’s shoulder. “Alert. Must be the miko’s influence.”

“Keh! Not even you can piss me off right now,” InuYasha pointed out. Sesshoumaru reached over and pulled the pup out of InuYasha’s arms. “Oi! Don’t touch my pup!”

“Sesshoumaru!” Leikizu scolded as she reached over to run the back of her knuckle over Inuakamori’s downy cheek. “You’d better give him back . . .”

“In a minute,” Sesshoumaru assured his wife. “Did you name this young one yet?”

“Inuakamori,” Kagome answered quietly, her eyes shining as she gazed at the baby in Sesshoumaru’s arm.

“All right, give him up before your stench rubs off on him,” InuYasha growled. Sesshoumaru let him take the squirming bundle. “See that, Inuakamori?” InuYasha asked his infant son, tilting him up just enough to let the pup look at the tai-youkai. “That’s a bastard. Remember that, all right? I’ll get a sword for you so you can beat on the bastard, I promise.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped. “Don’t teach him that word! And stop calling your brother a . . . stop it!”

“And your mama has a hella nasty temper . . . watch out for that.” Turning his tiny head to root around for the rest of his dinner, Inuakamori whined when he couldn’t locate what he wanted. InuYasha chuckled and handed him back to Kagome. “All right,” he remarked, turning his attention back to his brother. “Show’s over. Get the hell out. My pup’s hungry, and you ain’t watching.”

“Come, Lei. Nibori is likely panicking with both his sisters. Congratulations, miko, though I have serious reservations about your choice of a baka like InuYasha to sire your pup. You’d do well to keep him as far away from the infant as possible just in case ignorance rubs off.”

Leikizu rolled her eyes and hugged Kagome before kissing InuYasha’s cheek and following her mate from the room.

InuYasha stood back, watching as Kagome helped the pup find the rest of his meal. With a small grin, he sat down and leaned toward her, his arm supporting her back. She shot him a bright smile. He kissed her cheek. “I should call the runt. He stayed with Souta at the shrine so he could finish up his homework, or so he claimed. I think your mother bought more pocky for the brat.”

Kagome giggled. “Let’s hope he doesn’t try to give Inuakamori pocky for awhile.”

“Keh! At least not until after he’d had his first cup of ramen.”

Kagome groaned as InuYasha reached for the phone.

Souta answered after three rings. “Higurashi Shrine. This is Souta.”

“Souta? Bring Shippou to the hospital, will you? He needs to meet his brother.”

“All right,” Souta agreed happily as InuYasha heard Shippou hollering in the background. “Bye!”

With a chuckle as the phone line went dead, InuYasha shook his head and dropped the receiver back into the cradle.

“Is he coming?”

“Keh. I give him five minutes.”

A very disapproving frown engulfed Kagome’s features. “It had better take longer than five minutes. He’s got to learn to be more careful! Just because he’s a kitsune doesn’t mean—”

“I should get the lecture, does it?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

She sighed. “Still . . .”

Snatching the drowsing infant out of her arms, InuYasha lifted him up to eye-level much to Kagome’s chagrin. “He’s not a doll, InuYasha . . . .”

“Keh! You think I don’t know that? He’s tough, just like me, aren’t you, Inuakamori?”

In answer to his father’s question, the infant’s face screwed up in a scowl as he let out a huge, terrified howl. InuYasha hurriedly brought him to his chest, which immediately silenced the baby.

“Look at you, making your son cry,” Kagome grumbled as she tossed back the covers and slowly dropped her feet over the side of the bed. “Ugh.”

Pushing herself to her feet, Kagome’s eyes widened as she looked down and groaned softly. Preoccupied as he was, InuYasha didn’t notice right away until Kagome called his name. “InuYasha?”

“What’s wrong?”

She made a face and sank back down for a moment. “The nurse warned me to be careful the first time I tried to get up, though she didn’t say why,” she said, unable to keep the hint of reproach out of her voice. “Can you help me?”

He nodded, concern evident in his expression as he shifted the baby into one arm and reached for her with his free hand. “What’s wrong? Do I need to get your doctor?”

Kagome forced a smile. “No, I just have to go to the bathroom, and when I got up, it felt like everything below my waist was trying to fall out.”

Eyes flashing wider in alarm, InuYasha uttered a sound suspiciously close to a whine. “I’m going to get your doctor.”

“Wait!” she called after him, “I really have to go! It’s fine . . . I just wasn’t expecting it, I promise!”

He wanted to argue with her, but judging by the way she was squirming around just a little, she was serious about having to go to the bathroom. In the end, he sighed and leaned over, carefully wrapping his arm around her while she leaned against him to stand. Her legs seemed a little shaky, and she made a face full of distaste as she shuffled slowly toward the bathroom that was, mercifully, just across from the side of the bed.

“Thank you,” she called as she closed the door behind herself.

InuYasha scowled. “You tell me if you need me, wench!”

“I will,” she assured him through the closed door. “I think it’s okay now.”

InuYasha heard the kitsune barreling down the hallway in search of him and Kagome and checked his watch. ‘ _Six minutes_ ,’ he thought with a slight nod, ‘ _so more than five, no tweaking necessary. Not bad, for a kitsune._ ’

Shippou gasped as he skidded to a halt inside the room. “Is . . . is that . . .?”

“Come on, runt. Meet your brother.”

Shippou scampered over and hopped onto the bed as InuYasha sat down. Hopping up on the hanyou’s shoulder, Shippou giggled. “He’s really little . . . are you sure he’s yours?”

“Oi, runt!”

“Joking!”

InuYasha grinned. “I know . . . your mama named him Inuakamori. So what do you think?”

Shippou screwed up his face as he regarded the baby with a good dose of speculation. “He’ll do,” he finally agreed with a nod. Inuakamori opened his eyes wide and stared at Shippou. “He likes me!”

“Sure he does. He don’t know any better . . . yet.”

“Baka!” When InuYasha stuck his finger out in the general direction of Shippou’s nose, the kitsune let go of his shoulder and covered his nose with his hands. Digging into his shirt, Shippou pulled out Baka, his stuffed dog. “I brought this for him,” he said quietly, holding the toy out to InuYasha.

InuYasha frowned at the toy. “You don’t want him anymore?”

Shippou shrugged. “No . . . I still do . . . but I don’t need him anymore. He took care of me before you and mama adopted me, was all. But Inuakamori is just a baby. He needs more protection.”

InuYasha grinned. “Keep your toy, runt. We’ll go to the store and pick one out for your brother later.”

“Okay . . . can I hold him?”

InuYasha helped Shippou adjust the baby on his lap. Inuakamori contented himself by staring at Shippou’s wide green eyes.

The bathroom door opened, and InuYasha hurried to Kagome’s side. She looked as though she felt much better, and for that, InuYasha was thankful. “There,” she commented as she sat back down on the bed, “I washed my face and brushed my hair . . . wish I could have a shower . . .” Staring at Shippou with a tender smile, she shifted her happy gaze to InuYasha before reaching over and touching Shippou’s shoulder. “So what do you think?”

Shippou shrugged. “He’s fine, but I want a sister now.”

InuYasha laughed.

Kagome just groaned.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Inuakamori  
> _** _(Inu :Dog --- Aka: Red --- Mori: Forest) Dog of the Red Forest_ .
> 
>  ** _Keiko_** _  
> Adored One_
> 
> **_Kumiko  
> _ ** _Eternal Beautiful Child_
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from InuYasha_** :  
>  _… He was supposed to be a GIRL_ …
> 
>  


	92. The Scroll

Staring out the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the front driveway, Sesshoumaru’s pensive gaze saw everything and saw nothing. The moisture of the early morning dew hung thick on the land; crystalline droplets, the tears of heaven.

Amber eyes dropping to the ancient scroll in his hand, Sesshoumaru nodded. ‘ _It is time_.’

The familiar twinge, the protracted doubt, the worry that perhaps it was too late for the scroll to make a difference at all assailed him. Though the shift in his memories was pronounced, definitive, the smallest thing could precipitate another change, another bending of the wills, another tilt in the precarious balance of what should have been and what would be.

Turning away from the window, Sesshoumaru stared at the framed picture on his desk. Nibori, Keiko, and Kumiko . . . his children . . . if he didn’t need to ensure the future for himself, didn’t he owe it to them, and to young Inuakamori?

The day it had all ended the first time was now over five hundred years ago. At times, in the darkness of the night, in the quiet just before dawn, in the stillness of his life, he wondered. Had it not been for these things—these mistakes of the past, the inevitability of being made to see his own shortcomings—who would he be now? Had these events somehow shaped his life, culminating in this moment, in this one last opportunity to alter the tides of destiny? And InuYasha . . . would he even listen? Would he even care?

Dropping the scroll on the desk, Sesshoumaru picked up the photo and stared at it. In the end it didn’t matter as much, what was in the scroll, as it did that Sesshoumaru should finally give it to the intended recipient. He set the picture frame down with a nod. ‘ _It will be done. This Sesshoumaru . . . will finish this_.’

“All right, bastard, there better be a damn good reason you rolled me out of bed at the crack of dawn. Bark it out, will you?”

Sesshoumaru’s steely gaze rose to lock with InuYasha’s bored expression. “I met with the head of the financial department, InuYasha. It seems Telekazaan has actually managed to turn a profit last quarter.” Pushing the title for the security firm across the desk, Sesshoumaru stood back while InuYasha hesitantly picked up the document, looking it over slowly, carefully.

“So you were serious about handing it over.”

“Be not a fool, InuYasha. I do not renege on my word.”

Slouching into one of the chairs facing the desk, InuYasha deliberately propped up one foot then dropped his other over top, crossing them at the ankles. “Tell me something. What do you really want?”

Deliberately taking his time as he sat down behind the desk, Sesshoumaru leaned back, staring at his brother as seconds ticked by on the crystal clock next to the desktop calendar. “What do I want?” he repeated. “Surely you jest. You have nothing I want or need. You haven’t figured that out by now?”

InuYasha shook his head. Gaze narrowing as he met his brother’s stare dead-on. “Cut the shit, Sesshoumaru. I know you. I’ve _always_ known you.   You’ve never given a rat’s ass about anything, and yet . . . Why do I have the feeling you’ve got motives you haven’t told me about?”

Sesshoumaru nodded once as he lifted the scroll, extended it to his brother. “You’re right. It’s time you knew.”

“What’s this?” InuYasha asked, staring at the scroll with a marked frown. Turning it over in his hands, he touched the seal with his fingertips, traced over the old wax that held it closed.

“How should I know, baka? It was entrusted to me so that I could give it to you.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“Katosan . . . over five hundred years ago.”

“You bastard . . . why didn’t you give it to me back then?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “I didn’t realize you had need of it then. I know not whether you have need of it now. Do you?”

InuYasha stared at the scroll for another minute before slowly, hesitantly breaking the seal. Watching his brother’s face as he read whatever secrets the papers contained, Sesshoumaru was shocked to see the confusion give way to a sudden rage in InuYasha’s eyes. Slowly edged aside by sorrow, by sadness, by a pain that could bridge the passing of centuries, his emotions flowed freely through the brightness of his gaze.

Finally with a savage growl, InuYasha crushed the scroll in his fist, knuckles white, grimacing as he glared across the desk at Sesshoumaru. “Damn you to hell, Sesshoumaru! Why the fuck did you keep this from me?”

“What did our father have to tell you?” he countered.

InuYasha snorted, his anger a palpable thing. “It wasn’t from our old man. It was from Mother—the missing pages of her diary. Now you tell me . . . why didn’t you fucking give this to me before?”

“How would I have known what was of import when I did not read your scroll?”

InuYasha tossed the rumpled papers onto the desk before flopping back in his chair with a furious growl.

Sesshoumaru stared at him for a moment before reaching for the pages.

 

 

‘ _Strange things have come to pass this last while—things that you shall not understand for such a long time to come. I fear in the dark, I can hear him coming. He wants to destroy me, to destroy you because of me. For this, I am so sorry. It began on the waning of the moon, six times past. He wanted to claim me, wanted me to renounce you, renounce the vows I’d made to your father. Though your father might be gone from this world, in my heart he will remain my mate, so long as you live. It was my mistake to say as much to him. Norimitsu promised he would see you dead, and that was something I could not allow_.

 _‘Bitter and twisted, coveting what another has, unsatisfied to possess what he is given, Norimitsu’s heart is tainted black. In every way that your father was my light, my life, Norimitsu seeks to destroy it all. I will save you, InuYasha. I must save you. I was foolish, I think. Understand that I would have done anything to protect you, promised anything if it meant that you would live on. I bargained for your life, and in the doing, I damned myself forever_.

‘ _In exchange for his word that he would not bring you to harm, I became Norimitsu’s lover. I make no excuses. I offer no lies. InuYasha, it was enough for me to know that he had promised, but every time he touched me with his vile hands, I felt as though I died just a little. You were the one being who could make me feel complete, whole. I think I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I had to leave you. One way or another, the human spirit can only endure so much before it falters, before we lose our way. I pray you never learn this truth. I pray that you never see one you love lose so much that their wearied soul would better welcome death than to face the pain of living_.

‘ _Norimitsu blamed your father for killing his sister. She died shortly after Sesshoumaru’s birth. Though I feel for your brother—how hard would it be to lose your parent? I cannot be sad when, in the end, your father chose me. Being driven by hatred is such an ugly thing to see. If there had ever been a time when Norimitsu had a good spirit, there is none left in him now_.

 _‘My father has heard rumors of a mononoke that comes to me in the night. I’ve denied this to him, adding my lies to the weight of my innumerable sins. I’ve wished for death so many times now, it becomes a mantra, a chant, a salvation. But you, my child, you give me a reason to survive, to carry on. My child of lightness, my child of beauty . . . it is my wish that you never need the information on these pages, that you never know the things I have done, that you never realize the price I’ve paid for loving your father_.

‘ _But the secret that Norimitsu can never take from me is that, for every moment I spent with your father, for every second I hold you in my heart, for every pain in endure at Norimitsu’s whims . . . to have known your father, to have loved him as I did, and to have known that he loved me, too . . . it was enough, and it will sustain me. I love you, child of mine. For life, for love, and for your father and me, live strong_.

‘ _Your devoted mother_.

‘ _Izayoi’_

 

 

Letting the pages scroll closed over his fingers, Sesshoumaru slowly lifted his gaze to meet his brother’s stare. “What will you do, InuYasha?”

InuYasha shot to his feet, snatching the scroll out of Sesshoumaru’s hand. “Tell me where Katosan is.”

“Katosan?”

“Myouga and Totosai said before that Katosan was there when Mother died. I want to know what happened.”

With a sigh, Sesshoumaru nodded. “He is likely in his office by now. I trust you can sniff him out.”

“Keh.”

Sesshoumaru watched as InuYasha stormed out of the study and shook his head as the front door slammed moments later.

‘ _So . . . Norimitsu is to blame for this as well?_ ’ Slowly, Sesshoumaru reached for the phone and dialed. “It’s me. InuYasha is on his way to see you.”

A pause on the other end as Katosan pondered Sesshoumaru’s words. “Trying to kill me again?’

“No . . . he seeks answers.”

“I see. What would you have me tell him, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

Closing his eyes for just a moment as the levity of the knowledge InuYasha sought bore down on him, Sesshoumaru opened his eyes and grimaced. “Tell him whatever he wishes to know.”

Katosan sighed. “As you wish.”

 

 

:: ** _:8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8:_** ::

 

 

“InuYasha-sama, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. How is Kagome-sama? I trust your new pup is doing well?”

“Cut the crap, Katosan,” InuYasha growled. “Tell me what happened to my mother.”

Noticing the papers still clutched in the hanyou’s hand, Katosan nodded. “I take it you finally received the scroll.”

                  

“Unless you want another taste of Tetsusaiga, you’ll just answer my fucking question.”

Katosan sank down on the edge of his desk and nodded. “I was there when your mother was killed.”

“How did she die?”

As though needing to scroll back years in his mind, Katosan’s eyes grew misty, distant, unfocused as his gaze fell away from InuYasha. “After the Inu no Taisho died, Norimitsu wanted your mother.” He shook his head, a humorless smile that seemed more like a grimace twisting the corners of his lips. “ _Wanted_ isn’t the right word. He was _obsessed_ with her, with his desire to possess her because she had once belonged to your father.”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted, squelching the impulse to pace the plush office floor. “I know all that. I want to know what happened the night she died.”

Katosan nodded again. “Your grandfather had heard the whispering of the servants, the murmurs of a youkai who came to your mother in the night. He feared another like your father, you understand. He waited with his men until the night came, and he caught your mother and Norimitsu . . .” Trailing off with a shake of his head, Katosan closed his eyes for a moment. “You need not know that, I’m assuming. Your grandfather went into a mad rage, intent on cutting down Norimitsu for defiling your mother, and intent on killing your mother for allowing it to be so.”

Katosan stared at his claws, concentrating on his hands as though there were blood on them, and perhaps in his own mind, there was. “Norimitsu—the bastard—escaped into the night, leaving your mother at your grandfather’s mercy . . . and I’m sorry to say, he had none. She begged for your life, begged for them to allow you to live. I must confess, I never though he would do it. He raised his hand to Izayoi-sama time and again, but when he drew his sword . . . Forgive me, InuYasha-sama. I could have stopped him then.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Katosan finally lifted his gaze to meet InuYasha’s. With a shrug, he shook his head slowly. “She asked me not to. She was weary of being used, of being persecuted . . . weary of Norimitsu . . . You were the one thing that kept her alive for a very long time. The living mate oftentimes follows in death within months of losing the first. That she remained alive was a testament of her love for you, and for that, I respected her wishes. It was not my choice to make.”

“Mother . . .”

“She was dying when her father left her. The stench of her blood filled the room. I asked her if she would see you, tell you goodbye. She wanted to save you the memory of seeing her that way, and I can’t say I blame her for that, either. With the last of her strength, the last of her will, she tore the pages from her diary, sealed them with the mark of the Inu no Taisho. She asked me to give them to Sesshoumaru in case the diary fell into someone else’s hands. But, if it helps at all, she died with your name on her lips, and she died with a peace that she hadn’t known in years.”

InuYasha absorbed all of that in silence as something hot, ugly twisted his stomach in knots. Finally he stood, casting Katosan a last long glance. “Somehow it doesn’t really help.”

Katosan nodded. “I didn’t imagine it would.”

“I thought you hated humans.”

“I thought I did, too.”

InuYasha snorted with the waning bravado he possessed. “Keh. What changed?”

Katosan shrugged. “Many things . . . your mother’s strength in choosing death . . . your miko’s courage in choosing life . . . Sesshoumaru-sama’s changes of heart over the passing centuries . . . and perhaps I owe your miko a debt. Had she not done what she did, I wouldn’t have found my mate.”

Staring at Katosan for another long moment, InuYasha finally nodded and turned away. ‘ _That bastard’s dead. . . I’ll rip him apart . . . for Mother_ ,’ he thought as he strode toward the door.

Katosan’s voice stopped him. “Before you do anything rash, consider all you have to lose. Neither your father nor your mother would have you suffer what they did. Do you understand?”

InuYasha just stared at him before turning on his heel and slamming out of the office.

Stepping onto the crowded street, the hazy sunshine hurt his eyes. A sharp pain reverberated through his skull, nearly bringing him to his knees as a dull ache twisted around his chest. Unmindful of the milling crowds, the wash of faceless people that closed in on him, InuYasha started to run. Faster and faster, higher and higher, further and further, chased by the secrets of the past, the truths that left him torn open and bleeding, he pushed off the ground, sailed above buildings, moving in a blur of movement that no one could discern. Lungs burning, head pounding, wanting only to escape the vicious truths, the hateful deceit.

Sprinting through the city with eyes blurred with distorted images, outrunning the ghosts that whispered his name, he didn’t stop. If he ran forever, would someone catch him? If he reached the ocean, could he run on the water?

A soft voice whispered to his mind, a voice he knew but couldn’t place. Feminine, beautiful, his reason . . . his center. Her voice called to him time and again, soft as a snowfall, pure as rain . . . ‘ _Kagome_ . . .’

The sound of crying broke through the mists shrouding his mind, dulling the pain in his heart. ‘ _A pup . . . ?_ ’

Stopping suddenly, InuYasha blinked in surprise. The path he’d taken without thinking . . . it led him home.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Katosan_** :  
>  _::grimace:: … He took the news rather well_ …


	93. Tempering the Soul

“ _Hold on, I’m hurrying_ ,” Kagome called as she broke into a light sprint toward the nursery. Inuakamori’s normally happy personality was conspicuously absent after his morning nap. ‘ _Then again_ ,’ Kagome thought as she darted into the room where the protesting baby wailed, ‘ _there are times when he’s so much like his father it’s scary . . . like when he’s hungry_ . . .’

Giggling as the two month-old baby tried to locate his dinner through her blouse, Kagome sat down in the rocking chair and maneuvered the unhappy child to one side as she made quick work of unbuttoning her blouse and dropping the flap on her nursing bra as Inuakamori chewed on his tiny fist.

“All right, greedy,” she commented as Inuakamori latched on. She sighed. Washing laundry and cleaning the house while the baby slept had been the last things that Kagome had wanted to do, but since she’d had to spend twenty minutes trying to hunt down a clean pair of socks for Shippou this morning, she figured she didn’t have much of a choice, either. She yawned. ‘ _Whoever said you’re supposed to sleep when your baby sleeps must have been a man_ ,’ she mused as she wrinkled her nose.

Inuakamori wasted no time in drinking down his meal, and after a quick diaper change and a few more minutes of rocking, the infant was asleep once more. With a smile, Kagome laid him in his crib. He whimpered and scooted a little then settled back down to nap again.

The ringing telephone cut through the quiet house, and Kagome dashed to answer it before it could wake the sleeping hanyou. The caller ID said it was InuYasha’s office. She grinned. Maybe he just missed her . . .

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Inotaishou, hello, this is Kei. Is InuYasha in?”

She frowned as she twisted the coiled cord around her finger. “No . . . he hasn’t been home since he left this morning. Did he have an appointment for lunch?”

Kei, InuYasha’s secretary, sighed. “That’s the trouble. He did, and he missed it.”

“He did?” Kagome asked with a frown, balancing the phone between her ear and her shoulder.

“Yes, and Mr. Yamashita seemed very unhappy when he called . . .”

“If he comes in, will you ask him to call home?”

“Certainly. Good day.”

The line went dead, and Kagome hung up the phone with a frown. ‘ _Where are you, InuYasha?_ ’

Her logical mind assured her that he was perfectly safe, and even if she wanted to, she couldn’t go looking for him. Besides that, she wasn’t fond of taking Inuakamori into the city. The only time she had, the infant had been on edge the entire time, as though the smells and sounds that she was so accustomed to bothered him. With his father’s senses, then it wouldn’t surprise her if that was the case.

She sighed before grabbing the empty laundry basket and the baby monitor and heading outside to check the clothes line. InuYasha preferred to have his clothes air dried, and she couldn’t really blame him. The dryer, he said, made the clothes smell funny, and though she used it for Inuakamori’s baby things, she had to agree with InuYasha on that . . .

‘ _He did have to stop by Sesshoumaru’s this morning . . . I wonder if he might have any idea where InuYasha went?_ ’ she mused as she started unpinning clothes and folding them before dropping them into the basket.

“He’s had them all this time; did you know?”

Kagome gasped and looked up in the direction where the voice had originated. His tone quiet, pensive, raw, Kagome fought back the swelling sense of trepidation inspired by his resonance. “InuYasha? What are you doing up there? Kei called . . . you missed a lunch meeting . . .” His words sank into her mind, and she frowned. “He had what? Who?”

Moments later, a scroll of paper fell out of the tree, landing at Kagome’s feet. A terrible suspicion dawned on her, and she stepped back. Why did she feel like there were terrible things, hurtful things, in those rolled up papers? “What is this?”

“Read it.”

“I don’t know if I want to . . .” she confessed.

“Please.”

The gentleness in his tone surprised her. With a deep breath, Kagome slowly retrieved the rolled papers and smoothed them open. “Your mother’s . . .?  The missing pages?”

“Keh.”

If InuYasha’s uncharacteristic behavior meant anything at all, Kagome really wasn’t sure she wanted to read what the papers had to say. Still, if it meant so much to him that she did . . .

And slowly she began to read. Unable to stave back the soft sounds of her own shock, of her own revulsion over what the ultimate truths were, Kagome stopped time and again, unable to read more until she had removed herself from the sorrow in InuYasha’s mother’s last diary entry. The truths were hard enough for her to grasp. What was the knowledge doing to InuYasha?

“Oh . . . no . . .” she whispered softly, closing her eyes against the proof in ink. She heard InuYasha light on the ground. Letting the scroll roll closed over her fingers, she raised her tear-filled eyes to meet his. “InuYasha . . . I’m so sorry . . .”

He shook his head slowly, confusion mounting in his golden gaze, as though he couldn’t fathom what his mother could have possibly done to deserve what she had lived . . . and what had destroyed her. “I can’t remember her ever doing a fucking thing to anyone . . . I’ve thought about it, and . . . she never _hurt_ anyone. She never _asked_ for anything, and she sure as hell didn’t deserve—” Cutting himself off with a heavy sigh, InuYasha let his head fall back, gazing at the sky as though he was searching the clouds for some kind of an answer.

Kagome winced as she wrapped her arms around him, angry at her own inability to do more than hold him. “I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry . . .” she repeated over and over. His arms tightened around her, his cheek rubbing against her temple.

Shifting his hold on her, he leapt into the tree above. Kagome sat back, tugging on his shoulders until he leaned against her. She soothed him as best as she could, rubbing his ears, knowing that it would help and despising her inability to do more.

“Katosan said . . . she wanted to die. He said she couldn’t take it. Her father might have been the one to kill her, but it was because of Norimitsu . . .” He sighed, shaking his head, wincing as the shock of the revelations cut him to the quick. “He found out about Norimitsu, and he . . . He was afraid that my mother would further shame his house, so he killed her while that bastard ran away. Katosan said he would have stopped it but my mother wanted to die.”

Katosan’s words from so long ago came back to her, and Kagome shivered. ‘ _I did not cause her death . . . nor did I seek to prevent it . . . Could I have? Yes. Should I have? Possibly. Would it change the warning I give you now? Not at all_.’

“It was all because of me and my old man . . . She suffered, and she died . . . and if it weren’t for me—”

“No!” Kagome insisted, her voice harsh, contentious. “That’s not true. Your mother loved your father _and_ you!”

Sitting up, glaring at her, the fierceness of his expression marred by the vulnerability he couldn’t hide, the confusion of the little boy who didn’t really understand why he couldn’t see his mother anymore, InuYasha shook his head. “That don’t help much when all I can think is that if I hadn’t been born, she wouldn’t have suffered! It’s like her life didn’t matter, like it was less than nothing, and I—”

“Matter to _me!_ How can you say all that when you know that you’re the one who’s _always_ mattered to me?” Tender hands at odds with the vehemence of her tone, Kagome reached out, held his cheeks in her hands. “Don’t say things like that . . .   You matter to _me_ , and you matter to our children.”

Grabbing her up and dropping out of the tree, InuYasha let go of her and paced the yard. “You don’t understand! How can you? You’ve _always_ been loved, and you should’ve been. Every single person who’s ever loved me has died, and it’s all been because of me! My old man . . . Mother . . . Kikyou . . . Hell, even Shippou had to die, even if he was saved! _Damn_ it!”

“What about me?” she asked quietly as a single tear streaked down her cheek. “I’m not dead. I’m not going to die . . . not yet, not for awhile . . .”

“Kagome . . .” As though all the anger, all the frustration drained out of him in the one instant, he reached for her, crushed her in the steel of his embrace. Lips searching for her mouth as all the passion he felt redirected itself. She gasped as the reaction slammed through her, immediate and shocking. Knees buckling, breathing forgotten, she dug her fingers around fistfuls of his shirt, pulling him closer, helpless to do anything but cling to him as he devastated her mind.

She felt him lift her, cradling her to his chest. Unwilling to relinquish his claim on her lips, he moved with such a fluid grace she barely noticed, barely registered the opening of the door, couldn’t make sense of the sound of it closing behind them. She only understood the conflagration in her veins, the need to show him, on the basest of levels, that he mattered to her and that she would never readily leave him.

His kisses bordered on cruel, the crush of his mouth on hers a primitive thing. Restraining his need with the most precarious hold, he set her on the bed before bearing down on her with his body. Her muffled whimpers went unheeded as he raked his fangs over her throat only to work his way back with his lips, his tongue. Molten gold flowed from him to her, his instinctive need to possess her only served to ignite the same in her. Rising up to meet his body with hers, arching against him as she mumbled his name over and over again, he growled at her, meaning to quell her impatience. The sound goaded her further.

Demanding nothing less than her soul with kisses meant to ignite her body as her mind slipped away. The roar of wanton passion was like a rising flood, the breaking of her will soothed by the balm of his tongue. Bodies collided with a singular need, a ferocious intent, a visceral burn. Silencing her moans with a rampant energy, like lightning touching the ground, like thunder crackling through the heavens.

The melding of flesh and bone, of collapsing and resurgence, the ache of longing toppling under a strained control drove them further, lifted them higher—the lapping of the waves against the shore. A sigh, a gasp, a cry of frustration, the need of one heart to heal another, the power of the wounded soul whispered to her, screamed at her, tore at her with the vengeance of angels. Surrendering completely, wholly, lovingly, tempering the domination into the very act of submission: two hearts with a single goal, two minds merging into one . . .

Jerking impatiently at buttons that wouldn’t cooperate, Kagome’s quest to find InuYasha’s skin faded from a base need to an integral discovery. Silken skin over the ripple of muscles, undulating under her hands as her body melted deep within. A white hot burn as her clothes gave way to his claws, the savagery of his action wrenching a small scream from her heart as his mouth fell on her breast, as his hand rose to cover the other. Drawing on her in time with the rhythm of his heart, she shivered, shuddered, tangled her fingers in his hair as he growled in absolute ownership, in solitary possession of her body, of her mind, of her soul.

Pushing against his shoulders, Kagome struggled to finish her task. InuYasha leaned away, understanding what she wanted as she tugged on his jeans, yanking with impatience that rivaled his own. Finally managing the button and zipper, she scooted off the bed as he let her remove the last of his clothing. Her hands caressed his legs as she crawled back, up the length of his legs, massaging his thighs as his flesh leaped under her touch, his hips as he trembled under her power. With her nails, with her fingertips she provoked him. Her hands wrapped around him as he gasped out loud. Too much to bear, he leaned up, grabbed her, tossed her down as he rolled over her.

No finesse, no teasing, no subtlety to the act, thrusting into her in one jarring movement, Kagome arched off the bed with a sharp cry. Showing no mercy, giving no quarter, driving her harder, faster, deeper, over the edge as their names intertwined, as the tangled mesh of lust gave way to shimmering bliss, the hot wash of satiation. He shuddered under her hands, quaked as he kissed her, a sudden tenderness in his touch, a need to cherish, the consuming love. Convergent need met with a fevered rush, the flood of consummate passion borne on the waves of desperation drove them both over the brink into the fire, lifted them up to the stars.

In the wake of the aggression of their joining, he rocked against her slowly. Her body shifted her center as the slow burn reignited once more. Feathering touches fanned her body, taking his time as he reveled in the feel of her skin, the drag of his body on hers combined into a heady caress. Moaning as she throbbed around him, the pounding of her heart echoing in her ears as the meeting of scorching heat, of silken skin became convoluted emotion, love, desire, giving, taking. It pooled and flooded, washing over the rampant waterfall into the shimmering spring of infinity.

The difference in his demeanor was amazing. Where completion had come so quickly only moments before, gentleness guided him now. Every touch full of such caring her eyes stung as tears pooled behind her gaze. “I’m sorry, Kagome,” he murmured in her ear. “Did I hurt you?”

Meeting his rhythm, pressing against him, Kagome kissed him, cuddled him close. “Never be sorry, InuYasha. You can’t hurt me. Just don’t stop . . .”

His answer was captured in the deliberation of his movements. He whined softly as he strained against her, growled low as she raised her hips to meet his. The beauty in the rising tide, the simplicity of the merging of their bodies, closer than the air they breathed, the steady, slow pulse was a brilliant fusion.

Letting her dictate the pace, he responded to her sighs, her whimpers, her shivers. Slow understanding came to her. The first time had been what he needed, and now he was giving back. The spiral of languor that ebbed through her blood, the demanding ache that began and ended with him, the teasing sense that she was so close to heaven . . . “InuYasha,” she whispered, “please . . .”

“Hold on to me,” he whispered back. “Don’t let go . . .”

She did, wrapping her arms and legs around him as he cosseted her heart. In the quickening of his movements came a stark realization, an understanding that congregated over them, the innate knowledge that sometimes love was the only thing, that sometimes all you had in a promise of forever was the time you had to cherish the ones you love. The surge of the body became an idyll of respite, sheltering one another as they reached for the height of the stars.

The explosion of power that coursed from him to her reached out to her mind with rasping endearments. Her world fell away, and it was enough to know only that he was with her, that he loved her, that he would protect her for their own eternity. Reveling in the shattering light, floating in waves of completion, she kissed his cheek, his lips, time and again, held him tight as he collapsed in her arms.

It could have been hours, or minutes, or seconds. Time meant nothing in the stillness of the room. Punctuated by rapid, shallow breathing, content to be held as she whispered nonsense, as she stroked his ears, InuYasha hugged her tight. “Why do you love me?” he asked quietly, leaning away enough to look at her face.

Kagome pushed his hair out of his eyes. “The same reasons you love me,” she said softly.

He shook his head slowly. “That can’t be true,” he argued. “You’re beautiful; you give me a reason to live.”

“You don’t think you do the same for me? And you _are_ beautiful . . . you’re everything I could never be, and you love me anyway.”

“Kagome . . .”

Interrupted by a low gurgle, Kagome giggled. “Your son’s awake.”

“Keh! You’re the one who insisted on having a boy. I wanted a sweet little girl who would’ve known when to stay asleep,” he countered with a quick kiss as he rolled off the bed, heading off to retrieve their son.

With a sigh, Kagome got up and hurried into the bathroom to clean up. Maybe he was calmer now, but she knew him too well. As soon as he started thinking about all of it again, he’d try to do something reckless. She couldn’t honestly blame him for feeling the way he did. She just wanted to know he wasn’t running off in the throes of his fury to exact retribution for his mother.

“Oi, wench! Akamori’s hungry, and he thinks I’ve got his dinner!” InuYasha hollered.

Kagome tugged on her robe and scooted out of the master bathroom, wrinkling her nose at InuYasha’s shortened version of their son’s name. “ _Inu_ akamori just ate. What a little piggy.”

“He’s not a piggy,” InuYasha informed her with a snort. “He’s growing, and he’s a _pup_.”

“Yes, yes, pup—piggy, same thing.”

“Oh, really.”

She made a face. “Yes, or did I imagine that the ten cups of ramen I bought two days ago are all gone?”

“Told you that weren’t gonna be enough,” he grumbled.

She shook her head and sighed. “I rest my case, inu-piggy.”

“Oi!” he complained as he tweaked her nose.

She giggled. “There’s an old saying about, ‘if the shoe fits, wear it.’

“You wear it. I hate shoes, wench.” Content to watch her feed their baby, InuYasha stretched out on his side with his head propped up on his elbow. “He’s something, isn’t he?”

“I like to think so,” Kagome remarked lightly.

He frowned, eyebrows drawing together as Kagome waited for him to say what he was thinking now. “Would you have done what my mother did? If I wasn’t around, to protect Shippou and Akamori?”

“I don’t know . . . it’s different, when it’s your child,” she said slowly then winced. “Probably. A mother would do anything to protect her child. It’s what a mother is meant to do.”

“Yeah . . . I guess.”

His expression grew sad, and Kagome sighed. “Promise me you won’t do anything foolish, InuYasha.”

“I don’t do foolish stuff, wench,” he argued but wouldn’t meet her gaze as he rolled off the bed and tugged his jeans back on. Staring down at them for a long moment, he took them off again and rifled through the closet for his fire rat clothes.

“We need you,” she reminded him gently as she lifted Inuakamori to her shoulder.

“Norimitsu’s not getting away with it,” InuYasha growled.

Kagome ran to catch up with him. “What are you going to do?”

Shooting her a cursory glance, InuYasha snorted. “Keh! What the fuck do you think I’m going to do?”

“I’m coming with you.”

“The hell you are!”

“The hell I’m not!” Sensing the turmoil underlying the raised voices, Inuakamori whimpered then howled. Kagome bounced him up and down against her shoulder. “Please!”

Closing his eyes against the pleading tone in her voice, InuYasha shook his head. “I have to. She died to protect me. If I didn’t avenge her, what does that make me? It ends now.”

“At least wait for me!”

He shook his head as he hooked Tetsusaiga through his waistband. “No. I’ll come back, but . . . Shippou and Akamori need you.”

“But—”

“You and the pups . . . you give me a reason to come back, remember?” Pausing long enough to kiss her lips before nuzzling his cheek against Inuakamori’s downy head, he turned and strode out of the room.

Kagome laid the baby in the middle of the bed as she hurriedly threw on the first clothes she grabbed. “All right, InuYasha . . . be stubborn . . . but I _am_ following you, whether you like it or not . . .”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Norimitsu_** :  
>  _You think you can destroy me? Come, hanyou_. . .


	94. Changing Destiny

Glancing back at the house in the middle of the clearing, InuYasha swallowed the suspect lump in his throat before he broke into a sprint. The trouble in this time was, he had no idea where the bastard was hiding. Scents were easily lost amongst all the convoluted odors of the modern world. Someone had to know where the bastard was hiding. He frowned. What had Kagome said before? Hadn’t Leikizu told her that Norimitsu showed up every once in awhile to try to battle Sesshoumaru?

‘ _Damn it!_ ’ he growled to himself as he altered his course. He should have thought to ask earlier . . . ‘ _Damn it, damn it, double damn it, and damn it some more . . ._ ’

Tokyo flew by in a blur of color-washed gray. He felt the need to hurry, as if Norimitsu would escape if he didn’t. ‘ _That couldn’t be,_ ’ he thought with an inward snort. ‘ _Bastard doesn’t know I’m after him . . . but he will_ . . .’

Nibori was coming out of the mansion when InuYasha skidded to a stop before the doors. His friendly smile faded when he caught the murderous scowl on InuYasha’s face. “You’re here to see Father.”

InuYasha nodded as Nibori led the way back inside.

Sesshoumaru was talking on the phone when InuYasha strode in and sank down. That didn’t last long. InuYasha shot to his feet, flexing his claws as he paced the floor and waited for his brother to hang up.

“That’s fine, thank you.” Sesshoumaru said before he dropped the receiver back into the cradle. “Is there something you wanted?”

InuYasha wasted no time cutting to the crux of it. “Tell me where to find Norimitsu, and don’t tell me you don’t know because I think you do.”

His expression said that Sesshoumaru was reluctant to divulge any such information to the volatile hanyou. InuYasha gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “What will you do if you find him?” Sesshoumaru asked casually— _too_ casually.

InuYasha’s glare plainly told Sesshoumaru that he thought his brother was being dense on purpose. “What the hell do you think?”

Sesshoumaru sighed and stood abruptly, turning away to stare out the window as he stuffed his hand into his pocket and shook his head. “Will you go charging in there alone? Surely even you are not that foolish . . . or could it be that you really haven’t learned a thing, after all?”

“I don’t have time for your fucking riddles, Sesshoumaru. Just tell me what I need to know, all right?”

Pinning InuYasha with a shrewd stare, Sesshoumaru turned around again. Outlined by the early afternoon sunshine filtering through the window, his brother’s face was veiled in shadows, the expression in his eyes unreadable, the thinning of his lips telling. “I’ll tell you where to find him,” Sesshoumaru agreed quietly. “But you will listen to what I have to say first. Now sit down.”

“I don’t have the fucking time for this,” InuYasha snarled as he headed for the door.

“And I have had nothing _but_ time for this! For the lives of your miko and your children, you will _sit down_ and hear me out!”

The bitter anger—more sincere, more emotional, more real than InuYasha could remember having heard from his stoic brother—caught him off guard.   With a heavy sigh, InuYasha stalked back over to the chair and plopped down. “Keh! Fine. Hurry it up.”

Deliberately taking his time, Sesshoumaru shook his head and sat down again, too. “It began over five hundred years ago, over something I didn’t want but didn’t care enough to stop, either: your acquisition of Musashi.”

InuYasha frowned. “I never took Musashi. I never even tried.”

“Of course you didn’t . . . this time. Shut up and listen for once.” Sitting back with a deep breath, as though trying to figure out where to go from there, Sesshoumaru shifted his gaze to meet InuYasha’s without turning his head. “The past was quite different from that which you’ve recreated. There have been contingencies that would have struck you sooner if you had enough foresight to look for them.”

“Contingencies.”

“Do you need a dictionary, baka?”

“Shut the hell up and get on with it.”

Satisfied that InuYasha would be quiet and hear him out, Sesshoumaru nodded. “Surely you’ve wondered how it could be so, that you could not carry your mother’s diary through the enchanted well?”

“How do you know about the well?”

Sesshoumaru drummed his claws against his desktop with a pointed scowl. “Myouga, but we digress. I’ll get to him.”

“How _did_ you get Mother’s diary?”

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Sesshoumaru drummed his claws on the desk. “I know not how it came to be there. It was by chance that I found it at the annual antiques auction just before I gave it to you. The gentleman I spoke with said that it was in a box of old books donated by a Mr. Yamashita . . .”

InuYasha snorted, wondering why Sesshoumaru had put so much emphasis on that name. “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”

“Perhaps his surname does not . . . however, his given name might . . . Yamashita Norimitsu.”

Eyes flaring wide in surprise, InuYasha sat back. “Norimitsu . . . why would he willingly give up the diary?”

A careless shrug as Sesshoumaru sat back and frowned in apparent thought. “I know not why. Perhaps it was a mistake, that he never intended for it to be sold. Perhaps he simply thought he had no need for it now, five hundred years later. Whatever the reason, I knew it to be yours.”

Something else occurred to InuYasha, and he shook his head. “I missed a lunch meeting with a potential client today . . . his name was Yamashita . . .”

“What?”

“He called last week to set it up.”

“Then he knows.”

“Knows what?”

“He knows what I’ve done, that I’ve altered the past, baka. What else?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “You’re a real bastard.”

“Yes, so you’ve said countless times. Now shall I go on, or should we continue this witty banter until it is too late to go after Norimitsu tonight?”

“Keh,” InuYasha snorted but sat back, arms crossed over his chest.

Sesshoumaru sighed, eyebrows lifting in a bored affectation. “It’s simple, really. Nothing can exist in two places at the same time. _Nothing_.”

“Kagome said something like that.”

“She always has been smarter than you.”

“Damn it—”

“In any case,” Sesshoumaru cut in with a wave of his hand, “After Naraku was destroyed, after the jewel was complete, it granted a wish that never should have been made. It became clear to me then, that any wish made to purify the jewel would come to a bad end, no matter what the wish would have been. It was a tainted power, curbed by the desires of the youkai within. It was purified, and it was gone.”

A strange knot formed in InuYasha’s stomach, as though he didn’t really want to hear whatever it was Sesshoumaru was trying to say. “What sort of wish?”

A humorless smile, a hint of disgust in his eyes, Sesshoumaru cleared his throat. “You wished for the miko’s silence, and the wish was granted.”

“I wished for _what?_ ”

“With that wish, the well closed itself. She was trapped with you, in the past.”

“Keh! I wouldn’t wish for something so fucking stupid!” InuYasha bellowed, shooting to his feet and stalking toward the door.

Sesshoumaru moved faster, barring the door with his body, shoving InuYasha, making him stumble back. “You did, and your friends suffered for it. They died, InuYasha. One by one, they died. Your miko was last to die . . . and I could have saved her.”

InuYasha’s mind slowed. Eyes narrowing, fists clenching and unclenching, fury edging aside reason, he stared in disbelief at his brother. “ _What?_ ”

“I would have saved her. Tenseiga willed it to be so. Your miko . . . didn’t want it. Her soul was tired, weary, pained from seeing the rest of your pack die, and you . . . you wanted Musashi. You wanted to atone for your foolish wish.”

“How?” he rasped out, unable to meet Sesshoumaru’s gaze.

“By offering her the world of Musashi, of course. How else could you ever hope to make up for the two families you’d cost her?”

InuYasha shook his head furiously, violently. “That’s not what I . . . How did she . . . _how?_ ”

Sesshoumaru snorted out a dry laugh, devoid of humor, ironic and weary. “How did she die?” Staring hard at his younger brother as precious seconds ticked away, Sesshoumaru finally nodded. Raising his hand, index and middle fingers extended, glowing, crackling with a green light—his youki—he stepped forward, touched his fingers to InuYasha’s forehead. “Unlock your mind, InuYasha. Do it, in the name of the Inu no Taisho.”

Stumbling away from Sesshoumaru’s outstretched hand, InuYasha winced as the weight of memory crashed over him. “Kami, what did you do?” he muttered, clutching his head as bile rolled in his stomach.

“Norimitsu. She followed you. She threw herself between you and him, and she took the hit meant to strike you down.”

And as if a dam broke free, dislodging a torrent of dormant memories, InuYasha staggered back, fell into a chair, a soft groan as the images, one after another, spilled over, flowed through his head, stuck in his brain.

“ _Shippou,” he mumbled, the image of the dead kitsune, of Kagome trying to scream, and she couldn’t . . . The memory hurt. He hadn’t arrived in time to save the kit . . . Overcome with guilt over Kagome’s voiceless pain, the only solace she sought was in sitting beside the shattered remains of the Bone Eater’s Well, and he hadn’t been able to look her in the eye_ . . .

 _Sango’s body on a blood-soaked bed . . . Miroku screaming in his grief, in his pain . . . Kagome, silent in the corner, unable to speak as rivers of tears flowed down her face . . . Would she have been able to save Sango if she had been able to speak? InuYasha didn’t know. Maybe not . . . but maybe she could have at least eased the exterminator’s fears with her soft words, her gentle smile—the smile he’d taken away from her with his careless, stupid wish_ . . .

 _And Miroku . . . no one could help Miroku. InuYasha had never been good with words, and Kagome . . . He knew from experience that Kagome could heal the broken souls. But it was his wish, his thoughtless, damning wish, and in the end, Miroku had disappeared . . . InuYasha never saw him again_ . . .

_Visions of the innumerable bodies—human armies—littering the ground . . . the campaign for Musashi that had come with the price of the blood on his hands. Norimitsu had come “to settle an old score,” he claimed . . . and InuYasha had foolishly swung Tetsusaiga as Kagome’s scent came to him. Glancing at her, and in that second, her hand raised, pointing toward Norimitsu, and not a word came from her . . . not a sound. Looking back in time to see Norimitsu’s razor sharp poison claws descending on him, and Kagome, impetuous, beautiful, stupid Kagome . . ._

_Even when Norimitsu struck her down, she hadn’t made a sound. Her gasp was nothing more than a whisper of wind. She collapsed in his arms as he brought down Tetsusaiga in the Kaze no Kizu_.

 _Her eyes were so sad, so full of death—everyone else’s but her own. In that moment, InuYasha knew . . . he had wasted the one life that he had sworn to protect, to cherish. “Kagome, hang on . . . you can’t leave me . . . you promised, remember? And I . . . I promised you . . . Why did you do that? Stupid wench!_ Damn it!”

 _Lifting her hand, pushing his hair out of his face as she caressed his cheek, as she mouthed the words she had wanted to say for so very long. His heart heard them as he choked on his own tears_. ‘I love you, InuYasha . . . I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry _. . ._ ’

 _As her hand fell away, as an eternal peace settled over her beautiful face, as her body jarred in his arms only to go limp, as the trees bowed to her, as the wind stilled . . . the earth rumbled under them, as though the entire world knew—as though the entire world mourned_. _The cry known instinctively to all inu-youkai—the cry of grief, the howl of death, the mournful wail of the damned and those they left behind welled up inside InuYasha, broke from him, cut through the light and dark as his heart swelled and shattered, and in that moment, in that second, in the instant when she slipped away from him, he said the words he had always meant to say to her, “No, Kagome . . . I love you_. . .”

 _Sesshoumaru stepped out of the forest, moved toward them in silence as he drew Tenseiga. Staring down at InuYasha with an oddly troubled expression, he said nothing as he stared from the reverberating sword to the torn body of the miko_.

“ _Save her,” InuYasha rasped out, hoping against hope for this one kindness from the only person who could help. “Please_.”

 _Sesshoumaru leaned his head to the side, staring at InuYasha with anger flashing behind his gaze, as though he knew that InuYasha, alone, was to blame . . . “Why would you have me save her? You curse her, you mock her . . . you suffered her to lose her only way back to her home, to her people_.”

 _Flinching at the deadly accuracy in Sesshoumaru’s tone, the desire to defend his actions gave way to the fear of living his life without her. “You want me to beg?” InuYasha snarled, eyes bright in a wash of tears, as he felt the edges of hysteria gripping him, wrenching him. “I’ll beg. I’ll_ plead _. Just save her_.”

 _And Sesshoumaru lifted Tenseiga, ready to wield it. Grip tightening on the hilt, staring at Kagome, still held tightly in InuYasha’s arms . . . something stilled his hand, stopped him. Staring down at Kagome, as though she was talking to him . . . one jerk of his head, and InuYasha stared incredulously as Sesshoumaru dropped Tenseiga back into its scabbard and walked away_.

 _It could have been the passage of minutes or hours or days. InuYasha didn’t know. He held onto her body, trying to convince himself that it was not true, that Kagome hadn’t died, that she was sleeping, just sleeping. In the end, it was her smile that made him realize that she was dead. The look of absolute peace in her expression—a peace he’d taken from her when he’d made his wish on the Shikon no Tama_.

 _He buried her on the hill next to his mother’s grave. On the stone that marked it, he had carved one word that said everything he’d been too stupid to tell her in life:_ koishii _. . . cherished_.

“You bastard . . . Why didn’t you save her?” InuYasha asked as the memory cleared, his voice still raw, still throbbing, aching as emotion roiled deep inside.

Sesshoumaru sighed. “Her soul was weary . . . she asked me not to.”

“That’s a load of shit! She wouldn’t have! She—”

“Had watched everyone she loved be taken from her! And yet the _only_ person she wanted to save was the one who was out of her reach! _You_ destroyed her, InuYasha! You ruined her, and then you cast her aside for Musashi . . . and when that fell to you, only then did you think about avenging your miko.”

InuYasha wanted to argue Sesshoumaru’s claims even as the truth of his statements came back with the vindictiveness of five hundred years, of a destiny that had ended so early. “I . . . I died, too . . .”

 _He had hunted down Norimitsu, tracked him down with a ruthless abandon. More intent on finding him than he had been on locating Naraku, as though the one point of his life had come down to this_.

 _The battle had been quick. He had been careless, and maybe, just maybe, it had been intentional. With the passing of her had come the understanding that she had been his mate, if not in body then in mind, in spirit, in soul . . . He loved her like no other, and to have killed her, to have been responsible for crushing the most beautiful creature he’d ever known . . ._ ’Kagome, forgive me.’ _And maybe he wanted to die. He was just too much of a coward to do it, himself_ . . .

 _InuYasha hadn’t even drawn Tetsusaiga—it wouldn’t transform after Kagome’s death—Norimitsu stuck his poison claws through InuYasha’s stomach, had left him half-gutted and perversely, still alive. Sesshoumaru had done the same to him before. This was somehow different. Norimitsu’s poison had been purposefully inflicted, and where Sesshoumaru had simply punched a hole through him, Norimitsu had tried to disembowel him completely. Through his agonized gaze with Tetsusaiga clutched to his chest, InuYasha suddenly laughed as Norimitsu stood over him. “You think you’ve won, bastard? You didn’t. Kagome’s waiting for me_.”

“ _Pathetic hanyou . . . your mother should have let me kill you_.”

 _His laughter escalated, interrupted by coughs and gurgles as blood seeped into his lungs as Norimitsu walked away._ ‘Hang on, Kagome . . . wait for me _. . ._ ’

 _Feeling the surge of his youkai blood locked away by Tetsusaiga, it was the one thing that would save him now. Surging to free itself, reacting to the primitive knowledge that his hanyou body was dying . . . He tightened his hold on the sword as he waited . . . waited for death, or for the sunset, whichever would come first. It struck him then, the bitter irony. How much he had always loathed nights of the new moon, when his body was weak and frail, given to too many human emotions, too many pains. Tonight, though, the new moon meant freedom, and it meant that he’d see Kagome again_ . . .

“ _What have you done?_ ”

 _Another weakened laugh forced more blood to rise in his throat. He spit out as much as he could and blinked as he tried to focus his wavering vision on his brother, standing over him, holding Tenseiga as it pulsed in his hand_.

“ _Put it away, bastard,” InuYasha gasped out. “It won’t help me now_.”

“ _So you wish to die?_ ”

“ _Now . . . tomorrow . . . it don’t matter . . . I died months ago when you refused to save Kagome.” Gathering his strength as the sun dropped lower, almost below the horizon . . . just a few more moments . . . “Did you come here to gloat? To tell me I’m a fool? I damned myself . . . now let me die_.”

“ _You’ll give up? You’ll waste the miko’s life? She chose her path. She_ —”

 _Breathing much heavier, more labored, the tell-tale signs of the changes coming. With the last of his waning strength, InuYasha shoved Tetsusaiga away. “Take it and go. It’s the only thing you’ve ever wanted . . . and I don’t need it anymore_.”

 _The beat of his heart, the pain growing stronger, he felt his youkai recede until only the human remained_.

“ _If you die like this, you do not deserve our father’s blood that courses in you! Be not a fool, InuYasha!_ ”

“ _I’ll see you . . . in hell . . . Sesshoumaru_ . . .”

 _And the descending darkness took him to a place where he never found Kagome_ . . .

Sesshoumaru’s voice drew him back to the present. Unaccountably soft in the quiet of the study, the tai-youkai cleared his throat. “Since that day, I knew that I’d made the wrong choice. I honored your miko’s wish, and I didn’t bring her back. I knew not, that you would seek to follow her.”

“Why would you care? You’ve never liked me. You can’t stand me.”

“Don’t be dense. If I had truly wished you dead, you’d have died long before then. I would have let you freeze in the night when you were a pup.” With a slight shake of his head, Sesshoumaru sighed again. “And now you know.”

“What does it mean?”

Deliberately ignoring InuYasha’s question, Sesshoumaru made a show of brandishing his claws, cracking his knuckles. “It took me centuries to realize the one seemingly insignificant wrinkle. You see, your miko had yet to be born. You would have a chance to change your destiny. “

“More of your riddles?”

“Think, InuYasha . . . did you find your miko’s soul when your soul died?”

“. . . No.”

He shrugged. “I thought as much. She was reincarnated.”

“What?”

“Reincarnated, baka. She was reincarnated into herself. I saw the results. My memories have altered, too. Because none of you left behind offspring, it was simple to redirect the past. The miko is stronger in this life than she was before. I know this because I have seen it. Trouble was, I needed a liaison with the past. Back then, I wouldn’t have done a thing to help or hinder you. It was by chance that I found Myouga.”

“Myouga?”

Sesshoumaru went on as though InuYasha hadn’t interrupted him. “The first time Myouga came through the well with you was on accident. I believe it was the first time you came to drag the miko back.”

InuYasha snorted. “How could he get through? No one else could . . . just Kagome and me . . . How could Myouga have done it?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged and sank down in the chair across from InuYasha. “I had been keeping an eye on the shrine, trying to find a way to get a message to the past. I found Myouga on the floor of the well-house, and I convinced him to help me. He’s a parasite, InuYasha. You know what that means?”

InuYasha shot Sesshoumaru an ‘I’m-Not-Stupid-Look’. Sesshoumaru arched his eyebrows but didn’t contradict him. “Keh! Of course I know what a fucking parasite is!”

“Then you know that a parasite youkai is capable of absorbing trace quantities of youki, too. That, combined with your blood, allowed him to pass through the well. We thought it best if he didn’t make his presence known to you, for obvious reasons.” Sesshoumaru got up and retrieved two bottles of water from the wetbar, tossing one to his brother before melting the top off the other for himself. “The first goal was to keep you from making your idiotic wish that started the trouble. The easiest way to do that was to give you something to preoccupy yourself with.”

“The search for Mother’s diary . . .” InuYasha drank half of his water and snorted. “Sneaky bastard.”

Sesshoumaru nodded. “Myouga was charged with finding out all he could about the jewel, and how to purify it without the wish being tainted, with a planned pit stop to see Totosai, of course. That Myouga happened to be there when you and the miko came with that hairline crack in Tetsusaiga was just more expedient. Either way, Totosai would have gained a measure of your blood.”

InuYasha shook his head slowly. “Wait . . . you said that any wish would be tainted. What does that mean? Kagome and I . . .”

“Didn’t make a wish, did you? Myouga told me that the combination of youkai blood and miko power . . . the only true way to purify the jewel. When the two of you . . . mated—” InuYasha flushed, “—the reaction was the joining of souls, of miko and youkai that lives inside you. It forced the soul of Midoriko to absorb the youkai, merging it together, and when they met, they cancelled the effect, of light and darkness. So far as we know, there should be no tainting from your actions.”

“What does this have to do with Norimitsu?”

“You really are a baka . . . Norimitsu killed your kitsune. He killed your miko, and he killed you. What do you _think_ it has to do with him?”

InuYasha nodded slowly, leaning forward as he rubbed his forehead with a weary hand. “To make the change in destiny complete, I gotta kill him.”

Sesshoumaru nodded. “Norimitsu has an office here in Tokyo but he isn’t often here. He prefers Kyoto, or so I’ve been told. Word has it that he is in town for a convention.”

Staring at his brother for long seconds, InuYasha sighed.

“What are you waiting for? Grab Tokijin, and—”

“I’m coming with—”

They both stopped mid-sentence. InuYasha nodded as Sesshoumaru stood and stepped over to the fireplace to pull down his swords. Tokijin and Tenseiga . . . InuYasha’s hand fell to grip the hilt of his own sword, his birthright. Tetsusaiga.

“Keh! Don’t get any wise ideas, bastard. I just need you to show me where he’s hiding.”

“Baka.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_koishii  
> _** _Cherished_.
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from Sesshoumaru_** :  
>  _And now you know_ …


	95. Desperate Moments

Kagome grabbed the phone and hit the speed-dial as she hurriedly gathered things for Inuakamori’s diaper bag. “Mama?” she greeted when her mother answered the phone.

“Kagome! I was just thinking about you! How’re my grandchildren?”

She rolled her eyes. “You act like you never see them. Shippou’s not home from school yet, and Inuakamori’s just fine. Listen . . . InuYasha went somewhere, and I need to go find him. Do you think you could watch the boys for me? Just keep Shippou there after school?”

“Of course! Will you bring the baby right over, or do you want me to come get him?”

“I’ll come drop him off. I’ll be there in a little bit. I still have to pack a few things into his bag. Bye, Mama. Thanks!” She took the phone away from her ear and turned it off before redirecting a call to Miroku’s cell phone.

“Kagome?”

“Miroku . . . has InuYasha been there?” she asked as she stuffed a few bottles and a canister of powered formula into the diaper bag.

“I don’t know . . . I’ve been going over some security checks along the back quarter all day. Is something wrong?”

She frowned as Inuakamori started whimpering. Never liking to be left alone for long, the baby was fussing since he couldn’t see her. “He found out some things, and I’m a little worried . . . you know how he is . . .”

Miroku chuckled. “Ah, I was wondering when that infamous temper would rear its ugly head once more. He’s been in too good a mood for a little too long lately . . .”

Inuakamori’s whimpers escalated to a full-blown howl. She winced. “Hold on, will you? I’ve got to get the baby . . . he’s so much like InuYasha sometimes it’s scary . . .”

“All right,” Miroku agreed with an exaggerated sigh and a soft chuckle. “Don’t tell _him_ that, though. He’s already a little _too_ proud of that baby . . .”

Kagome wrinkled her nose. “I know . . . sometimes I think he forgets that I had anything at all to do with Inuakamori. Just a second . . .” She set the phone down and hurried off to grab her son. “What’s wrong with Mama’s big boy?” she asked, smiling as she lifted the baby out of the halted swing and cradled him against her shoulder. He stopped crying immediately and shoved his fist into his mouth. “Oh, no, you. I know you’re not hungry again . . .” she chided.

Suddenly, she tensed. As though she could sense the presence of something sinister, she tightened her hold on her son as her eyes darted toward the windows. “Something’s not right,” she murmured, patting the baby’s back. Closing her eyes as she centered her concentration, Kagome used her training to extend her aura, as Kaede had taught her to do. ‘ _Two men . . . no, five, with guns . . . they’re coming_. . .’

Eyes snapping open, Kagome didn’t wait for the men to barge in. Darting toward the back of the house, only one thought echoed through her head. ‘ _Inuakamori . . . I’ve got to protect him_ . . .’ She could purify them, if they had been youkai . . . but humans, let alone humans with guns . . .

Slamming the door in his room, Kagome looked around wildly, anxiously, as her son started to whimper again.

“Kami . . .” she muttered, trying to silence the baby as she tried to find a way to protect him, to hide him. Raising her gaze to the ceiling in a silent entreaty for help, Kagome gasped. ‘ _The attic . . ._ ’

Tugging hard on the chain that hung from the trap door, Kagome grimaced as the door fell open and as the ladder extended down. A smothered yelp as she heard the front door give, and she jerked the folded ladder and hurried up the rungs. “Be good, baby . . . Mama will be back soon . . .” Swallowing hard, she kissed her son’s forehead and scooted him away from the door before hopping down and hurrying to close the trap. Yanking with all her might, the chain snapped in her hands, and she stuffed it into a drawer on the diaper changing table to keep the men from figuring out where she had hidden the baby.

The bedroom door slammed open. Kagome smothered a cry as she fought against the urge to look up. Whether he sensed the danger or whether he was too scared to make a noise, Inuakamori remained silent.

“I found her!” the man called as he grabbed Kagome’s wrist. “Come on,” he growled, waving his gun toward the hallway.

Flinching as the gun pressed between her shoulder blades, Kagome did as she was told. ‘ _Be quiet, angel . . . be safe . . . I love you_ . . .’

“Who sent you?” she asked, deliberately trying to keep herself calm by talking. Other men—five in all—closed in around her as she stepped into the living room. “What do you want?”

“Can’t tell you,” another man spoke with an amused chuckle. Eyes raking over her, Kagome resisted the urge to shy away from him. “Now where’s your baby? I was told you have a baby.”

“He’s not here . . .” she hedged, eyes darting around the room as she tried to find a way to escape. Eyes skittering over the end table next to the sofa then returning, Kagome gasped softly. The phones in the house were all connected, and if one was left off the hook, a light on the main unit—the one she was staring at—would blink. ‘ _The kitchen phone . . . Miroku?_ ’ Straightening her back with resolve, Kagome repeated herself in a much louder tone. “He’s not here. My husband has the baby with him.” ‘ _Come on, Miroku, you know that’s not true_ . . .’ “What do you want with me?”

The men chuckled, as though she ought to know the answer to that. “We ain’t at liberty to tell you, remember? You’ll see, soon enough . . . our boss said to bring you to him. Get moving.”

“Pretty little thing, isn’t she?” another man spoke as he grabbed her arm to hurry her along.

She jerked away from him. “Wait!” Kagome insisted as they swept her toward the kitchen—toward the door. “I have to let my pup out. You know, they make _such_ a mess if you leave them alone too long, especially such a _young_ pup, and he really _is_ just a young pup . . . only two months old . . .”

The men exchanged looks. Most of them simply looked irritated. One looked a little suspicious. The last one actually laughed. “We’re in a hurry . . . and I doubt you’ll have to worry about your puppy long. I don’t think you’ll be coming back here, ever,” the one who laughed remarked. “Now if you don’t mind . . . ?”

Kagome gasped as the gun nudged her again. “It took five of you to kidnap me?” she demanded, mostly to keep herself from screaming.

“We were told that your husband has a bad temper. Mr. Yamashita thought this would be best.”

Kagome remained quiet as they escorted her out of the house and toward the waiting work van. That name . . . Yamashita . . . why did it sound familiar?

‘ _Mr. Yamashita seemed very unhappy when he called_ . . .’

She frowned in confusion. Why would one of InuYasha’s business associates want to have her kidnapped?

Sitting on the floor in the back of the van with four guns trained on her, Kagome thought of InuYasha’s smile, of Inuakamori’s face, of Shippou’s laughter, even as a riot of panic welled up inside her . . . ‘ _Keep it together, Kagome_ . . . _Miroku . . . please . . . You had to have heard me_. . .’

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Miroku hit speed dial on his phone and waited for Sango to answer as he sprinted toward the house. Grimacing as the phone rang five times, six times, he was about to hang up to call Mrs. Higurashi when Sango picked up the phone. “Houshi-sama?” she answered sounding adorably sleepy. Miroku sighed. “Sango, I need to you to get over to Kagome’s. Inuakamori is there, alone.”

“What? Where? Kagome wouldn’t leave him alone . . .”

He rubbed his forehead as he picked up his pace. “I don’t know . . . I think she’s been kidnapped . . .”

“What?” Sango shrieked. “How do you know?”

Miroku flinched but kept running. “Kagome put the phone down so she could get the baby—I heard him crying. Then I heard the door, like someone busted it open, and voices. Anyway, I heard Kagome. She said that InuYasha had the baby, then she said she ‘had to let out the pup’ . . . I think she hid him.”

“Where _is_ Kagome?”

“Someone named Yamashita had her kidnapped . . .I’m going to see if anyone knows anything. Kagome said InuYasha was upset over something . . . Get over there, Sango. The baby’s there, I know it. I’m going after Kagome.”

“All right. Be careful. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Clicking the device closed without breaking his stride, Miroku ran in the back doors and down the hallway, throwing open doors and peeking inside, room after room, searching for anyone who could help him find his friend. Dialing InuYasha’s cell phone, he growled as he got the ‘out of range’ message. “Sesshoumaru! InuYasha? Anyone? Hello!”

Nibori stepped out of the living room with a marked frown. “Something wrong, Miroku?”

“I’ve got to find InuYasha,” Miroku explained between deep breaths. “Someone named Yamashita kidnapped Kagome.”

Nibori’s eyes widened. “Yamashita?”

To Miroku’s surprise, Katosan stepped up behind Nibori. “That means he knows,” Katosan remarked with an uneasy glance at Nibori.

“Who knows what?” Miroku demanded. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see Sesshoumaru-sama . . . Come, exterminator. InuYasha-sama’s miko has been taken by Norimitsu.”

“Kami . . . Tell me where to find him.”

Nibori and Katosan exchanged quick glances. “We’ll show you.”

Miroku followed the two inu-youkai out of the mansion as he dialed Sesshoumaru’s cell phone. Seconds later, after being greeted with the tinny voice of a prerecorded message saying that the caller he was trying to reach was out of range, Miroku snapped the phone closed and jammed it into his pocket as Nibori pulled the ex-monk onto his back and the two inu-youkai broke into a sprint.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Sango burst into the house as she held a protective hand over her lurching stomach. “Inuakamori!” she called, hoping the baby would cry, hoping that he was safe. ‘ _Kagome . . . where did you hide him?_ ’

Hurrying through the house, room by room, Sango called, over and over. Rifling through closets, tugging on big drawers, looking anywhere Kagome could have stowed the baby . . . “ _Inuakamori!_ ”

Darting from room to room, Sango struggled to remain calm. Stopping inside the infant’s room, she called out once more. He had to be here . . . Mrs. Higurashi had mentioned that Kagome was supposed to bring him over just before Miroku called, and Sango was starting to feel desperate. “ _Inuakamori!_ ”

The muffled sound of the crying infant suddenly permeated the quiet. ‘ _It’s coming from . . . above?_ ’ Staring up at the ceiling, she noticed the chain hanging from the trap door. ‘ _The attic?_ ’ Staring at the covered hole, it was obvious to her that someone had yanked the chain out to keep the infant hidden. ‘ _Kagome_ . . .’ She broke for the door to find something she could use to climb on to reach it—and something to pry the door open.

A three step footstool folded and stowed between the refrigerator and the wall filled one need. With a wince, Sango grabbed a butcher knife out of the thick block on the counter to use as a wedge as she ran back to the room. She set up the step-ladder and climbed, standing on tiptoe as she jammed the knife into the door crack. Pulling on the knife’s handle with all of her might, the door finally gave and slowly swung down enough to catch the edge as the knife clattered to the floor. To her relief, the infant’s cries were unmuffled as the door opened. “Hold on, Aka,” she crooned as she hurried down the footstool and unfolded the ladder, “I’m coming . . .”

The wailing infant was red-faced and terrified from his ordeal. Knowing that she was familiar but was certainly not his mother, Inuakamori sniffled and cried harder. “Shh, it’s all right . . . your mama will be home as soon as she can . . . houshi-sama went after her . . .” Sango tried to reassure him as she cradled him to her chest, humming the lullaby that she’d heard Kagome sing to him numerous times over the last couple of months. It did the trick, and the infant whined and whimpered but stopped wailing. With a sigh of relief, Sango hurried to call Kagome’s mother.

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“She don’t really look powerful,” one of the men—a squat boy who didn’t look much older than Kagome—remarked to one of his thug-friends.

“Some styles of fighting don’t need muscle,” he replied. “It don’t matter, anyway. Guns are always faster.”

Kagome kept her mind centered, unwilling to let the men intimidate her any more than they already had. Their firearms were daunting, and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming. ‘ _Well_ ,’ she thought ruefully, ‘ _I wanted to follow InuYasha . . . Miroku, I hope you understood what I was saying_ . . _. Inuakamori . . . be safe_ . . .’

It would be easier to stay calm if she could see where they were taking her. The van jostled her, and she put her hands on the floor to keep from falling. Wincing inwardly as four guns ‘ _snicked’_ as they were readied to be fired at her sudden movement, Kagome slowly raised her hands in surrender.

She slid across the cold metal floor when the van lurched to a stop. The driver came around and opened the door. Grinning at her, he gestured her forward. “Come on. Can’t keep Mr. Yamashita waiting.” She did as she was told. Confident that his comrades were watching her at gunpoint, the driver yanked her hands behind her back and tied them with a short length of rope. “Sorry,” he said with a nasty chuckle. “Mr. Yamashita’s orders.”

Kagome didn’t recognize the outside of the office building. Black slate, polished smooth . . . lumbering over her, ready to crush her . . . Parked where they were, in a small alcove behind it, she couldn’t see the main street, and even if she did, the guns were too close, and the men seemed nervous. “Move it, girl.”

Swallowing hard as one of the men roughly pushed her, Kagome stumbled forward, catching herself before she could falter. Fear gripped at her even as she fought it away. If she fell apart now . . . ‘ _They will not break me_ ,’ she thought as she straightened her back. ‘ _InuYasha, Shippou, Inuakamori . . . they need me_ . . .’

She was surprised at the inside of the posh office building. Highly polished marble floors, high ceilings crossed with steel beams, everything about the place was elegant, sophisticated, and very, very dark. Huge, thick marble pillars stood like silent sentinels in the grand open space. She was escorted to the elevator between two rising marble staircases in the middle of the open space behind the immense reception desk. The men pushed her into the elevator while one dialed his cell phone. “We got her. We’re getting on the elevator now . . . her baby wasn’t there . . . yes, sir.” Turning to the rest of his cronies, the man—the quietest of them, raised his gun at Kagome as she stepped onto the elevator. “Hurry up. Akira, you take her to Mr. Yamashita’s office. The rest of you, come with me. We’ve got new instructions. Mr. Yamashita seems concerned that her husband will show up. We’re to show him a warm welcome.”

Staring at the guns while the doors closed behind her, Kagome bit back a panicked cry that welled up in her throat. InuYasha could cut through youkai without any trouble. She didn’t worry that he would have trouble finding her. He was more than in his element with that sort of fighting, in fair fighting. He was almost indestructible when he fought, but guns . . . ‘ _Be safe, InuYasha_. . .’

Her stomach lurched as the elevator shot to the top floor. The doors opened into a very plush office that seemed to encompass the entire level. Three walls of windows covered by thick green curtains, a solitary circle of light was suspended above the expansive mahogany desk. Even that monstrosity was dwarfed in by the sheer magnitude of the looming chamber. Two doors were arranged to left side of the elevator, another on the right. ‘ _The stairways_ ,’ she realized vaguely, feeling as though she were suspended in a dream . . . or a nightmare . . .

“Very good,” the man said, his voice barely higher than a whisper, the sound grating across Kagome’s nerves like the scuttling of leaves across an autumn-dried earth. Uncovering the telephone receiver he held against his ear, he gave final instructions to the person on the other end. “Take care of her husband. Don’t let him reach this floor. Fail me and die.”

Kagome could feel the man’s unease as he pushed her out of the elevator and stepped into the room behind her. With a soft scrape, the doors closed again, and they were alone with the man she couldn’t see.

‘ _He’s youkai_ . . . _I know him, his youki_ ,’ she realized, eyes flaring in shock as the man—the youkai—slowly stood. His disguise was ineffective against her miko power. Black hair hanging down his back, fangs bared as his mouth twisted into a wicked grin, claws longer than she remembered, amber eyes piercing through her with a vindictiveness that made her want to run. She stared as he crossed the floor slowly, deliberately, taunting her, stalking her, a predatory gleam awakening in his eyes. He stepped over to the elevator control panel and hit the emergency shut down switch. A soft groan as the building’s transportation ground to a stop met Kagome’s ears, echoed in her brain. ‘ _No escape_ ,’ she thought. ‘ _None_ . . . ‘

“So . . . we meet again.”

Lifting her chin as she dared to stare at the youkai, Kagome willed herself to be calm as she regarded him.

“Norimitsu.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Miroku_ **   
>  _I thought youkai were fast!  Can’t you two move any faster?_


	96. Seek and Destroy

“Move it, bastard!”

“Oh? And here I kept my pace down for you, baka.”

“Keh!”

Rushing through the streets of Tokyo as no more than blurred color surrounded by sudden gusts of wind, InuYasha and Sesshoumaru sprinted toward the office complex on the outskirts of the city. “Pay attention, InuYasha. Norimitsu is stronger now than he was before.”

“Stupid bastard . . . I’ve had enough of him,” InuYasha grimaced as they ran side by side. “Just show me where he is, and I’ll take care of him . . .”

“Stupid, perhaps, but he is sly.”

“Tetsusaiga will still cut him down.”

Sesshoumaru stopped outside an imposing structure. The building was looming, immense, easily forty stories tall, fashioned out of polished slate, shining like mirrors in the sunlight. “This is it,” InuYasha said quietly, casting a sidelong glance at his brother.

Sesshoumaru nodded, closing his eyes for a moment. “He is here.” Eyes snapping open, vague surprise registering on his face, he sighed and strode toward the front doors as he glanced back behind them, hand on the hilt of Tokijin. “He has your miko.”

“What?”

“I sense her aura. She is here.”

“Damn it! I told her—”

“Your anger will not aide her now, InuYasha. Now, come.”

Mumbling a thousand curses under his breath, InuYasha strode past Sesshoumaru and into the building.

“Get down!” Sesshoumaru bellowed as a rush of thunder filled the air. Seconds later, InuYasha was flat on his stomach being forced to the floor by his brother’s hand. Shielded from view and gunfire by plant-topped marble room dividers, InuYasha glared over his shoulder. “Baka! They have guns!”

“Cowards,” InuYasha hissed then glared at Sesshoumaru again. “Would you get off my back?”

“Don’t do anything foolish,” Sesshoumaru growled before letting him up. “Keep your baka head down, will you?”

“Keh . . . you, too.”

‘ _Two humans_ ,’ InuYasha realized as he raised his sleeve to block the acrid stench of the firearm. Underneath that, he could discern the reek of the men—and Kagome’s scent lingered on one of them. A low growl escaped him before he could stop it. Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes.

Taking a moment to survey their surroundings, InuYasha was relieved to see that, other than a column of pillars that ran the width of the huge room, Sesshoumaru and he were behind the only other decent cover in the place. The rows of plant dividers were fashioned of marble, and the bullets didn’t seem to be able to permeate that. Straight ahead in the middle of the room was a huge receptionist desk, but that was only pathetic wood. He made a face. He could shred that in a matter of seconds, if he really wanted to . . . and he just might, on his way back out, with Kagome . . . and just because he _could_ . . .

Behind the desk were two huge marble staircases flanking the only elevator he could see, InuYasha snorted in disgust. He’d never been able to reconcile himself to using one. There was something about them that upset his senses, making his ears pop crazily, making him feel nauseous.

Creeping forward as he tracked the human, InuYasha could sense the man’s misplaced excitement, his overwhelming arrogance. The man cocked his gun again. InuYasha stifled a growl.

The other man was hiding behind a marble pillar. From where InuYasha knelt, behind another divider, he could see his back, but to get to him would mean trying his luck in the open space between, and if he had learned nothing else in Kagome’s time, he knew that bullets were faster than any youkai.

Sesshoumaru leaned back against the opposite divider. Catching InuYasha’s eye, he jerked his head toward the man behind the pillar. InuYasha nodded. “Just two, right?” InuYasha whispered.

“So it would seem.”

Stifling a snort, InuYasha shot forward, hidden behind another pillar only feet away from the man who dared touch Kagome. Refraining from cracking his knuckles, InuYasha slowly pulled Tetsusaiga from its scabbard. The sound of the metal scraping as it came free echoed in his ears as he grasped the hilt.

Another explosion of gunfire accompanied by a human’s terrified shriek filled the empty air. The noise was cut off as quickly as it had come as the sickening crunch of bones breaking echoed all around.

In the confusion, InuYasha lunged out of his hiding place, cutting down the other human as the man tried to raise his gun. “Keh! Weak-assed bastard,” he snorted, staring down at the fallen human.

“Gloat later, baka. We’ve got work to do,” Sesshoumaru commented dryly.

“I really hate you, Sesshoumaru, you know that, right?” InuYasha growled as he stomped away from the slain human. Sesshoumaru was examining the elevator controls.

“Yes, I know . . . and I despise you, too, you worthless half-breed,” he remarked. “The elevator has been stopped, doubtless by Norimitsu, which means . . .”

InuYasha cracked his knuckles as he turned toward the stairs. “He knows I’m here, and he knows I’m going to fucking kill him.”

Sesshoumaru headed for the other staircase. “This time, watch your foolish head, will you?”

“Keh! You brought Tenseiga.”

“Keh. I’d rather not use it, thanks, least of all on one as pathetic as you . . . baka.”

“InuYasha!”

Both men stopped and whirled around as Miroku followed by Nibori and Katosan burst into the building.

“Typical, monk. Always showing up after all the action . . . why are you here?” InuYasha demanded, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the late-comers.

“He’s got Kagome,” Miroku said, ignoring InuYasha’s cryptic commentary.

“Yeah, I know . . . now either shut the hell up and help me find her or go hide, and I’ll find you when I’m done.”

Katosan and Nibori headed off with Sesshoumaru up the other stairs while InuYasha and Miroku continued upward. “Kind of like old times,” Miroku joked as he pulled his sickle. “Don’t worry, InuYasha. I’ll protect you.”

“Keh! Fucking monk . . . shut up already, will you?”

Miroku chuckled.

Kneeling down behind the marble banister, InuYasha sniffed carefully. Miroku pulled something out of his waistband. InuYasha glanced at him then looked back with a disgusted snort. “What the fuck is that?” he demanded, glowering at the firearm in Miroku’s hand.

“It’s a gun, InuYasha. You point it and—”

“I _know_ what it _is_ , Miroku. Why are you using that pathetic human toy?”

Miroku grimaced. “I’m head of Sesshoumaru’s security, InuYasha. A sickle isn’t necessarily the best answer in every situation, is it?”

“When did you learn to use one of those?”

“At a firing range. Now can we rescue Kagome?”

“Damn it . . .”

Satisfied that this floor was empty, InuYasha and Miroku ran around the banister and along the half-wall to the base of the next set of stairs.

“What’s taking you so long?” Sesshoumaru demanded as InuYasha and Miroku met up with them at the base of the stairs.

“Got into a gun debate,” Miroku commented with a grin.

Sesshoumaru shook his head as InuYasha grabbed Miroku by the front of his jacket and dragged him up the stairs.

The definite sounds of fighting as they reached the top of the stairs. “Humans,” InuYasha muttered. “Two of them.”

Miroku winced at the sound of breaking bones. “Make that one of them,” he remarked with another grimace.

“InuYasha-sama! Go on!” Katosan called out.

InuYasha and Miroku broke for the stairs, ducking low and avoiding bullets that whizzed over their heads. ‘ _Hang on, Kagome . . . I’m on my way . . ._ ’

Drawing up short mid-way up the stairs, InuYasha caught Miroku with a hand to his chest. “Youkai . . .”

Miroku nodded, raising his eyes to the open space above them. The stairwell was so thick with youki it was nearly a viable thing. “I can sense them, too . . . a lot of them.”

“Playtime, monk. Put away that damn gun, will you?”

Miroku rolled his eyes but did holster the firearm.

InuYasha leaped forward, lighting at the top of the stairs as Miroku ran to catch up. Cutting through the first of the youkai that came after him with a grim smile of satisfaction, InuYasha didn’t stop as he flashed Tetsusaiga with a quick jerk, bringing the blade down as he yelled, “Kaze no Kizu!”

“Well, you could have saved some for me,” Miroku grumbled as the youkai dissolved in the blaze of the Wind Scar. A low rumble from above drew both of their gazes, and Miroku shrugged. “Then again . . .”

“What are you waiting for, baka?” Sesshoumaru called as his group hit the landing. “Your miko’s life hangs in the balance, and you’re wasting time staring at the ceiling?”

InuYasha snarled as he lunged for the stairs.

“Sesshoumaru . . . I want a raise,” Miroku quipped as he plunged up the stairs after InuYasha.

“Then kill something and earn it, monk!” InuYasha growled over his shoulder.

“I would if someone _else_ would put away their sword,” Miroku countered.

“Keh!”

“Are they always like that?” Katosan asked.

“Worse,” Nibori answered. “Isn’t that right, Uncle?”

“Shut the hell up and _move!_ ” InuYasha bellowed as he landed at the top of the next flight of stairs. Miroku was right behind him. “Well, hell’s seven hounds,” InuYasha growled as more youkai came at them.

“Don’t you think this is just a little redundant?” Miroku gnashed out as he held off a bear youkai with the sickle chain. “InuYasha . . . if you’ve got a moment? My hands are a little full . . .”

“Keh!” InuYasha snarled as he lunged at the bear. Decimating it with his Sankon-tetsusou, Miroku jerked the chain and whipped it in a circle over his head. The scythe sailed over InuYasha’s ears, embedding with a sick thump into the youkai that had been sneaking up from behind. The beast screamed as Miroku heaved against the chain, slicing the youkai straight down from skull to navel as it exploded in a violet light.

“I want that raise now,” Miroku called out as they dashed for the next flight of stairs.

“Ask me in the morning,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he tore through another youkai.

“Next time watch the ears, Monk . . . Kagome’ll kill you if you maim them,” InuYasha called back.

Miroku grinned. “Yeah . . . she loves to rub them, doesn’t she . . . and it’s so nice of you to _humor_ her in that . . .”

InuYasha blushed as he hit the top of the landing. “Ain’t it?”

Miroku chuckled.

“Behind you!” InuYasha yelled as he turned and saw a bat youkai buzzing straight for Sesshoumaru. The tai-youkai ducked in time to avoid the impact as InuYasha lunged forward and cut through it with his claws. “Keh! And you tell _me_ to pay attention.”

“I could have taken it,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he shot to his feet and cut down another youkai.

“They’re getting tougher,” Nibori grimaced as he fought off a boar youkai.

“Speak for yourself,” InuYasha grumbled as he cut through two youkai in one sweep of Tetsusaiga.

Miroku winced as the spider youkai he was preoccupied with managed to cut through his jacket and sleeve with one of its razor-sharp claws. Whirling in a circle, he evaded the creature’s pincers as his sickle cut through the insect’s skull.

“Damn, monk, you’re covered in spider guts,” InuYasha remarked as he ran toward the next flight of stairs.

“Yep,” Miroku agreed, “nice, don’t you think?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes as he plunged up the stairs to the next floor. “You reek,” he complained as Miroku caught up on the landing.

“You would, too, if you had ‘spider guts’ on you. They should market this as cologne. . .”

“Keh!” he snorted as he cut through another youkai. “I don’t have time for this!”

“InuYasha-sama!”

Turning his head as Katosan called out to him, InuYasha ducked as a falcon youkai dove at his head. Lifting Tetsusaiga over his head, the falcon screamed as the blade cut through it, showering the hanyou in thick, black blood.

“Good . . . now you reek, too,” Miroku couldn’t resist commenting as the two sprinted up the next flight of stairs.

“I really hate you, monk, did you know?”

“Look at it this way, InuYasha. Only another twenty floors to go.”

InuYasha snarled in frustration. “Shut the hell up, Miroku!”

Luckily the next eighteen floors were much like the previous ones. Though the youkai seemed to be tougher, there were also fewer of them. By the time the reached the thirty-eighth floor, InuYasha was covered in various guts and blood, including his own since one of the youkai had gotten in a lucky hit. Since he had been surrounded by four of them at the time and had managed to come out of it with only a scratch on his cheek for their efforts, he was quite pleased with himself even as the last of his patience wore thinner and thinner.

The only other noticeable thing was that the blue sheen of the Aoirotoku had begun to show surrounding Miroku around the twenty-second floor, as it had with Sesshoumaru, who had looked vaguely amused, Nibori’s sheen had appeared around floor twenty-five, and to Katosan as well as InuYasha’s surprise, the Aoirotoku had formed around him around floor thirty-three. ‘ _Keh . . . guess I don’t want to kill him anymore . . . for now_ ,’ InuYasha thought when he noticed and thankful that no one made him explain it even if Miroku couldn’t help but chuckle about it as the barriers grew brighter the closer they got to Kagome. InuYasha’s was bright enough for his fire rat clothing to have an almost purple appearance. He only prayed Kagome would stay safe until he got to her because if Norimitsu hurt her at all, he’d rip the bastard apart slowly and painfully . . . and leave the parts for the scavenging vermin . . .

“Why am I glowing?” Katosan asked as they reached the landing on floor thirty-six.

Miroku laughed. “Because InuYasha believes that he has to protect you . . . See? He’ll deny it, but notice the lovely shade of ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red on his cheeks . . .”

“Yeah, you’ll be seeing ‘Monk-on-his-ass’-black and blue in a minute,” InuYasha snarled as Miroku’s barrier dimmed just a little as he used his claws to rip into a serpent youkai.

Miroku flicked the metal ball around, catching a raven youkai around the neck. With a quick yank and a dull snap, the bird fell. They broke toward the next flight of stairs as the other three took care of the remaining youkai.

They stepped off the landing onto the thirty-ninth floor.   It looked exactly like the ground floor. The sudden rush of guns being cocked cut through the silent level. “Get back!” InuYasha snarled, shoving Miroku back down into the stairwell as he dove behind the marble banister.

“Ten on this side,” Sesshoumaru called out.

“Fifteen over here,” InuYasha replied as Miroku dug out his gun.

InuYasha grabbed the firearm and hurled it over the side of the stairwell. “Damn you, monk! That’s not gonna be enough to do a damn bit of good!”

“Allow me,” Katosan said as he raced up the staircase behind InuYasha and Miroku.

Surging forward with too much speed to easily discern his movements, Katosan ripped across the floor, claws extended, taking down ten of the humans before he was jerked back, a bullet tearing through his shoulder.

On the other side, Sesshoumaru was taking care of business in much the same way. InuYasha caught the humans off-guard as he smashed Tetsusaiga’s hilt against the sides of their heads, knocking them out as Miroku cracked the metal ball of his weapon against two more.

InuYasha knocked out the remaining human before turning to look for Katosan.

“I despise guns,” Katosan remarked dourly as he held his injured shoulder and staggered over to the rest of them.

“Nibori, stay with Katosan,” Sesshoumaru ordered before turning back toward the stairs. “Let’s go get your miko.”

InuYasha nodded at Katosan before dashing off to the stairs one last time.

‘ _I’m coming, Kagome . . . Norimitsu . . . I’ll fucking kill you_ . . .’

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Katosan_** :  
>  _What a strange family_. . .


	97. Norimitsu's Revenge

Staring defiantly at the imposing youkai, willing her heart to be calm as she fought against the magnitude of worry that threatened her perceived calm, Kagome didn’t give an inch as she lifted her chin and let her distaste show in her eyes. “What do you want with me?” she asked quietly, buying time for something, anything, her miracle.

“How long do you think it should take for your beloved lapdog to come after you?” Norimitsu countered, ignoring her question.

“He’ll kill you for this . . . and for what you did to his mother.”

A sinister smile surfaced on his face. “Izayoi . . . I’ll never forget darling Izayoi . . .”

“But you hate humans . . . why did you want her?”

“Did I? How could I hate a creature such as her? No, she chose what she chose . . . and that was enough. I didn’t need her love. That is a pitiful emotion reserved for humans and worthless youkai. I still possessed her.   Did it matter? Her hero was dead, cut down by his own lack of vision, and his sin, his half-breed son, lived on.”

She didn’t try to hide the absolute loathing in her expression, in her glare. “You’ll never hurt him.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my dear. I will crush him completely, totally, and I’ll laugh . . . I hold all the cards, don’t I, so long as I hold you?”

“You’ll never have me,” Kagome assured him.

Deliberately stepping toward her, reaching out, stroking her cheek, Norimitsu grinned down at her. “Ah, but I will have you, too, as soon as I kill your precious InuYasha, and his vermin spawn.”

Eyes flashing wide as she couldn’t contain the sudden panic that rolled in her belly at the mention of her baby . . . “Inuakamori . . .”

“Yes, and the kitsune . . . though I could have sworn I’ve already killed him . . . twice now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I am not as foolish as Sesshoumaru would have InuYasha believe . . . or did they not tell you? Sesshoumaru has been playing Kami . . . seeking to alter the course of destiny. A stupid mistake on his part. You cannot change time to suit your own jaded wishes. You’ll all die, one by one . . . just as you all died in the past.”

Kagome frowned, shaking her head in confusion. “What are you saying?”

Norimitsu’s laugh was sinister, vile. “Are you so simple, miko? I say that every one of your pack should have died five hundred years go. It has been Sesshoumaru’s self-appointed mission to change this . . . Too bad he will fail.”

What he said didn’t make sense. Kagome brushed it aside. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but she wanted to believe that he was just trying to scare her. The glints in his eyes were enough to make her already ragged nerves fray even more, and she balled her hands into fists to keep from screaming in the silence of the room. His fingers stroking her cheek repulsed her. She bit her cheek to keep herself from spitting at him.

“Sometimes I think you may be Izayoi reborn . . . you have her eyes.”

Unable to stand his touch any longer, Kagome jerked her head to the side. “Don’t touch me!”

“Will you make a deal for your helpless pup, like Izayoi did?”

“I’d rather die.”

His grin widened. “That could be arranged.”

Glancing down, she noticed the blue sheen forming around her . . . the beginnings of the Aoirotoku. “Do what you want, Norimitsu. InuYasha will come, and he’ll kill you.”

“On the contrary, miko. He’s already here.”

Kagome’s eyes widened just a little as the comforting touch of InuYasha’s youki came to her. Still far away but at least in the building, she drew strength from his proximity. “Why do you hate Sesshoumaru?” she questioned, biding her time, trying to keep him at bay. “Isn’t he your nephew?”

“He is no blood kin of mine!” Norimitsu spat angrily, eyes flashing with irritation. “He is no better than his father! Too proud, too unworthy! The Inu no Taisho didn’t deserve one such as my sister! He killed her with his tainted blood. She wanted to be his mate, and he used her to bear him a son then let her perish when he could have saved her.”

Kagome frowned. “How did she die?”

“She was cut down while the Inu no Taisho was elsewhere. He left her unprotected, and for that, she died.”

“But what does that have to do with Sesshoumaru?”

Norimitsu’s violent gaze locked with Kagome’s, his expression daunting, challenging. “He looks exactly like his father . . . he doesn’t acknowledge his mother’s lineage in the least.”

Kagome wisely kept her thoughts to herself as she wondered if Sesshoumaru weren’t better off for that. “But you bear the same crescent moon crest on your head as Sesshoumaru,” Kagome reasoned. “Surely—”

“That means nothing! It simply marks him a poison-bearing youkai . . .”

The man with the gun gasped and backed away a step.

Norimitsu chuckled. “Do you fear youkai? You should . . . We are far superior to you worthless humans.”

“No, sir,” the man mumbled weakly. “N-not at all.”

The chuckle escalated into a sinister laugh. “Good . . . because if you try to run, I will cut you down.”

“After all those years . . . why did you give up InuYasha’s mother’s diary?” Kagome asked, deliberately redirecting Norimitsu’s attention. The last thing she wanted was for the guy with the gun to decide to go postal . . .

Norimitsu threw his head back and laughed. “What a simplistic question, miko! Because! Don’t you see? I already won . . . I have you here now . . . what else do I need? InuYasha will come to me and die . . . and then Sesshoumaru will seek to avenge him if only to honor their ignoble father! The beauty of it all is that a gun, while ugly and clumsy, does have its uses . . . and the end result is the same. It kills indiscriminately, whether it be human or youkai . . . or disgusting half-breed abominations.”

“The only abomination I see is you,” she said, unable to repress the absolute rage in her voice.

He raised his hand to strike her. Kagome didn’t flinch as the back of his hand snapped her head to the side. She felt blood trickle from the corner of her mouth as she slowly turned back to face him again. He grinned. “You’ve got spirit . . . I’ll enjoy you.”

“I won’t let you hurt anyone,” she countered. “Not now, not ever.”

“I don’t think you’re in a position to threaten.”

“I’m not threatening,” Kagome said quietly. “I won’t have to. InuYasha will come for me.”

“I’m counting on that.”

“And you’ve threatened his sons as well as me . . . do you think he’ll let you live?”

“Do you think I fear him?”

“I think you ought to.”

“And I think you should hold your tongue, miko.”

Kagome glanced down. The barrier was nearly complete. ‘ _InuYasha . . . be careful_ . . .’

“We’ll have to do something about that barrier,” Norimitsu commented as he jerked his hand away from her skin, hand burned slightly from the blue shield that guarded her. Norimitsu’s gaze flashed to the man with the gun. “Take her over there. Kill her if she tries anything.

Pushed forward by the cold, hard barrel of the gun between her shoulder blades, Kagome obeyed as both stairwell doors flew open. She wasn’t sure who was behind the one, but the other gave to a snarled bellow of, “ _Kaze no Kizu!_ ” Seconds later, she gasped as one of the waves of flame shot past her across the floor. Bathed in the blue light of the Aoirotoku, Kagome instantly felt InuYasha’s strength lending her an extra measure of calm. “ _Kagome!_ ”

“InuYasha . . . Sesshoumaru . . . how nice . . . I can destroy the both of you, in one sweep.”

“Still suffering your delusions of grandeur, I see,” Sesshoumaru remarked coldly. “However . . . this is not my battle.”

“Keh! Damn right, bastards.”

Despite the anxiety knotting her stomach, Kagome rolled her eyes as she finally dared a peek back at InuYasha. The sight of him holding Tetsusaiga and wrapped in the protection of the Aoirotoku brought the sting of tears to her eyes. Miroku stood just behind InuYasha looking entirely serious and like he’d seen better days. Kagome reined in the desire to run to InuYasha. She didn’t dare. The barrel of the gun nudged her forward again. InuYasha growled when she gasped.

“That’s hardly sporting of you, InuYasha. Let me level the field. Put away your sword. If you dare use it, my man will kill your mate. Fair enough?” InuYasha’s growl grew louder as he slowly dropped Tetsusaiga into the scabbard. The Aoirotoku blinked and dimmed then vanished.

“I don’t need nothin’ but my claws to cut down the likes of you,” InuYasha scoffed as he cracked his knuckles.

Norimitsu shook his head slowly. “Impetuous till the end . . . I’ll cut you down . . . I should have done it when you were a pup . . .”

InuYasha’s chin lifted suddenly, as if he smelled something, and he suddenly lunged at Norimitsu. Bringing his claws down as Norimitsu stepped aside, InuYasha managed to catch his arm as the torn flesh sent a fine crimson mist spraying through the air. “How dare you fucking hurt her!” InuYasha snarled as he leapt again.

“Does the scent of her blood bother you, hanyou? It’ll be much worse in the end.”

“InuYasha! Your haori!” Miroku hollered.

InuYasha didn’t look down but from where she stood by the window, Kagome could see the steam rising off the haori as it dissolved under Norimitsu’s acid blood. ‘ _InuYasha_ . . .’

“ _Sankon-tetsusou!_ ” InuYasha bellowed as he sprang forward again, claws descending. Norimitsu tried to step aside again but InuYasha’s claws caught him on the shoulder. With a sharp hiss of pain, the youkai shoved InuYasha, sending him sliding back over the polished marble floor. Miroku caught him before he slid into the wall. “Thanks, monk.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Slight movement caught the corner of Kagome’s eye as InuYasha lunged toward Norimitsu again. Glancing over, she saw that Sesshoumaru was very slowly, very casually inching in her direction. He caught her eye and shook his head once. She forced her eyes back onto InuYasha.

Norimitsu shot off the floor to meet InuYasha in the air. She winced as InuYasha hollered in pain as the youkai slashed across InuYasha’s chest with his claws. Landing on the floor in a crouch, the hanyou held his hand against his bleeding chest and extended his arm, flicking his wrist with a hollered, “ _Hijin-ketsusou!_ ” as Norimitsu landed. The Blades of Blood shot out, ripping through Norimitsu’s jacket and shirt, leaving him torn and bleeding.

Norimitsu’s laughter filled the room. Kagome gritted her teeth against the sound. “Give up, hanyou! You’ve never been a match for me.”

Slowly getting back to his feet, InuYasha snorted. “Keh! You really are a stupid bastard if you think I’d ever give up on Kagome.” Golden eyes shifting to meet hers just for a moment, Kagome smiled her encouragement at him before he nodded slightly and looked back at Norimitsu.

“You place too much stock in your weak human side, InuYasha. Aren’t you proud of your youkai heritage, tainted though it may be?”

“There ain’t a damn tainted thing about me, bastard . . . and my human side is what makes me even more determined to kill you.”

‘ _InuYasha_ . . .’ Kagome blinked back sudden tears as he stood so proudly, redefining himself to everyone in the room in that second. The complete acceptance, the total calm was so far removed from the boy she’d fallen in love with so long ago, and yet so telling about the man he’d become . . . and she loved him more for it.

“You’ll never be powerful enough to kill me . . .”

InuYasha shot forward, drawing his claws back as he swung at Norimitsu again. The youkai gasped as InuYasha’s claws raked across his cheek, down over his chest. Growling as more of the youkai’s blood ate away at his clothing, InuYasha shoved Norimitsu back into the desk. The force of the hit coupled with the youkai’s weight broke the mahogany surface as though it were made of matchsticks. InuYasha stalked forward, stare fixed on the sprawled body of the inu-youkai.

A deafening crash like thunder rang through her head, the singe of a white hot burn across her cheek forced Kagome to scream as she fell to the side. InuYasha’s voice bellowing her name permeated her mind even as something hot, heavy, soaked her blouse as the weight came down on her. Miroku’s voice came to her as though from a great distance, and it took a moment for her to realize that the man behind her had fired the gun.

She fought back the hazy blackness that threatened to overcome her, fought against the welcoming arms of oblivion. Her ears were ringing, echoing the thunder of the gun fired at such close proximity to her. As her slowed mind came back into distorted focus, she realized that the stuff soaking into her blouse was blood . . . and yet not her own blood . . .

“Get up . . . miko . . .” the voice called to her, soft yet muted, the sound lost in the echoes of time. A tug at the ropes, and her hands were freed.

Kagome opened her eyes as Sesshoumaru shoved the gunman’s body off of her before he staggered away. She got up, steadying herself against the wall for a moment, staring at the floor as InuYasha’s curses filled the air. “Get the fuck up, bastard!” She shook her head and glanced over. InuYasha stood over Norimitsu, his haori hanging off him in tattered bits, blood soaking the front of his white undershirt. Norimitsu pushed himself to his feet.

Eyes dropping back to the marble floor, Kagome gasped as she noticed something she hadn’t before. A thick trail of blood led away from her . . . “ _Sesshoumaru!_ ” Leaning against the wall by the door where he’d entered the room, Sesshoumaru’s face was pale, ashen, eyes closed, expression blank. Blood saturated the front of his shirt, the front of his pants, pooling on the floor under his feet.   Without thinking, Kagome broke into a sprint as Miroku closed in from the other side.

InuYasha glanced back at Sesshoumaru and then stared. Sesshoumaru opened his eyes and nodded once at InuYasha. InuYasha swallowed hard. “Oh, _hell_ no,” he growled as he slowly turned back to face Norimitsu again.

“Stay . . . back,” Sesshoumaru commanded, sweat trickling down his cheek. “My blood . . . is like . . . his . . .”

Kagome whimpered softly, eyes locking with Miroku’s for something they could do. From where the wound was—she could see it now since his shirt was dissolving away—she could tell. Sesshoumaru had been shot in the heart.

With a hearty laugh that filled the chamber like a macabre song, Norimitsu spoke. “That’s what happens when one seeks to change destiny, Sesshoumaru . . .” he taunted. “Surely you didn’t think that even you, oh Great Inu no Taisho, could escape it?”

“This Sesshoumaru . . . seeks to escape nothing . . .”

“Don’t you fucking die, bastard,” InuYasha snarled. “Damn it! I ain’t telling your mate and pups a damn thing, you hear me?”

Sesshoumaru slid down against the wall and smiled wanly, flinching just a little as he swallowed, breathing labored, shallow. Kagome knelt down beside him. “InuYasha . . . no . . . baka . . .” Gaze cloudy, hazed with pain that he didn’t voice, Sesshoumaru blinked slowly and shifted his eyes to meet Kagome’s watery stare. She blinked them away so she could read his lips. “He must . . . kill Norimitsu . . . with Tetsusaiga . . . with the combined power . . . of the inu-youkai . . .”

And with a soft gasp, a stuttered exhalation of breath, he closed his eyes.

The entire building shuddered, a mournful wail groaning from the very foundation. The earth knew, and the earth marked it as Kagome broke down in silent sobs, as Miroku closed his eyes against the bitter truth. InuYasha unleashed a savage howl, the sound of the inu-youkai, the wail of mourning. The fang suspended on the chain around his neck pulsed, throbbed, reverberated with a sudden power.

Cracking his knuckles as he straightened his back as a sudden wind blew through the enclosed chamber, InuYasha lifted his glare to lock on Norimitsu as Miroku hugged Kagome—the only thing he could do.

“This ends now,” InuYasha said, his voice even, calm . . . cold. “For Kagome . . . for Mother . . . and for Sesshoumaru.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Sankon-tetsuso  
> _** _Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer_.
> 
>  ** _Hijin-ketsusou  
> _** _Blades of Blood_. **** _  
> _
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from Sesshoumaru_** :  
>  _Sexxhoumaru was deplorable. Having me help my addled brother was disgusting. Killing me off? You shall be hearing from my agent for this outrage_. . .


	98. Brothers of the Fang

“This ends now,” InuYasha said, his voice even, calm . . . cold. “For Kagome . . . for Mother . . . and for Sesshoumaru.”

“You’ll avenge the brother you despise?” Norimitsu challenged.

“I’ll avenge my family!” he snarled as he lunged at the youkai once more. Miroku gasped as Kagome glanced up, wiping her eyes as she stared, too. InuYasha was a blur of movement, claws tearing through the air with a vengeance that she had never seen before. His extended hand glowed with a greenish light, as if he had another power surging through him.

The crack of breaking bone as Norimitsu shrieked in outraged pain, trying to spin away from the hanyou . . . Kagome winced as the youkai’s arm fell away, as InuYasha landed on his feet and leaped again for another strike. Norimitsu managed to avoid the attack. InuYasha landed on his feet and whirled around to face him again.

Norimitsu snarled savagely, rushing toward InuYasha with his claws extended. InuYasha reached out with his hand outstretched, punching a gaping hole through Norimitsu’s stomach. Ears flattening against the tormented scream, InuYasha balled up his fist and shoved with his free hand as he jerked his fist free and send Norimitsu careening back.

Shaking the youkai’s blood off his hand, InuYasha slowly, deliberately dragged Tetsusaiga out of the scabbard, raising it up only to bring it down level with Norimitsu’s chest. “Should have left it alone when you had a chance, bastard. For what you did to Kagome five hundred years ago . . . for what you did to my mother before that . . . for what you’ve done to Sesshoumaru now . . .” Drawing the sword back, InuYasha willed all of his strength, his power, into this final blow as Norimitsu stared at him in dumbfounded shock. “ _Mamorikoi!_ ” he bellowed as he swung the blade.

The wave of blue energy flashed in the trail of the swinging weapon. Shooting over the room in an energy wave, Norimitsu’s screech was deafening. The surge cut through him, flowing outward from the point of impact, shattering windows with the force of the heavy explosion. The building swayed precariously as the curtains were left in shreds, as Norimitsu’s body dissolved in a flash of gray ash only to be carried out the windows by the last reverberations of Tetsusaiga’s devastating technique.

With a deep breath, InuYasha dropped the sword into the scabbard once more. He’d barely let go of the hilt when Kagome threw herself into his arms, against his chest, sobbing as she mumbled things that made no sense. For the moment, he hugged her back as relief washed over him, the inner understanding that everything would be just fine, so long as Kagome was in his arms. Pushing her hair out of her face to kiss her forehead as she wept, InuYasha held her tight, cheek against her temple, as his gaze lit on his fallen brother.

“Sesshoumaru . . . you stupid bastard,” he rasped out, pulling away from Kagome to stagger over to his brother’s body. “Damn it, I thought you told me not to be so fucking careless!”

If he thought that Sesshoumaru would suddenly sit up and mock him, he wasn’t sure. Hot anger welled up inside, thick and heavy, choking him. A myriad of feelings broke in a moment, thundered through his veins as he struggled to come to some sort of understanding.

“We should . . . get him out of here,” Miroku said after clearing his throat. “Take him home.”

“Why didn’t Tenseiga protect him? It did before . . .” Kagome demanded.

Miroku sighed. “I think that was some sort of connection between the swords. Since they were both forged from their father’s fang, Tetsusaiga cannot levy a killing blow to Sesshoumaru so long as he held Tenseiga . . . but it didn’t apply to anything else.”

“Father! Kami . . . _no!_ ” Nibori didn’t stop running as he burst into the room. “How . . . ? What . . . ?”

“He saved Kagome,” InuYasha explained, his scowl bright, intense. If the other saw the tears gathering in his glower, they didn’t comment as InuYasha blinked furiously. “He was shot.”

Nibori shook his head slowly. “Father . . .”

Kagome buried her face against InuYasha’s chest. He winced slightly as the salt in her tears stung his torn skin.

“Tenseiga,” Miroku hissed as the sword suddenly pulsed. Still strapped to Sesshoumaru’s hip, the sword made its presence known in the stillness of the room.

“You do it,” InuYasha mumbled to Nibori as he turned away. “He’s your old man.”

He could hear the blade shaking as Nibori drew it out. Scraping in a stilted cadence as Tenseiga was pulled free, Nibori’s anxiety was a physical thing. InuYasha closed his eyes, unable to watch and wait, hoping that the sword would work . . .

Nibori choked a little. “It won’t . . . Tenseiga rejected me . . .”

“What?” InuYasha growled as he turned back. True enough, Tenseiga didn’t react at all to Nibori’s youki.

Nibori nodded slowly and held the sword out to InuYasha. “I think . . . it wants you.”

“Keh!” InuYasha snorted, arms crossed over his chest. “He’d rather stay dead than to know I brought him back.”

“InuYasha!” Kagome gasped, having read his lips since she was still having trouble hearing. “Oh, kami! Just do it, will you?”

Glowering at the sword—the other Sword of the Fang—InuYasha forced himself to reach for it. ‘ _Don’t reject me . . . If it rejects me_. . .’ Hand closing around Tenseiga’s hilt, InuYasha nearly dropped it when it pulsed in his hand. Kagome stifled a sharp cry with the back of her hand as InuYasha adjusted his hold on the weapon of healing.

And he understood. The Swords of the Fang. The Brothers of the Fang. He was as responsible to make sure that Sesshoumaru was safe as Sesshoumaru was to do the same for him. A quiet awe, a surge of unrepressed respect as InuYasha lifted the blade, rested it against his forehead. Staring at his brother’s body, he saw the bearers coming to take Sesshoumaru’s soul. Narrowing his golden gaze, InuYasha drew his arm back, sliced through the fiendish imps as they dissipated with their outraged shrieks.

Sesshoumaru gasped and winced then opened his eyes, gaze clouded as he blinked back his disorientation. Slowly glancing around at the faces staring down at him, he frowned as he slowly got to his feet. Clothing as clean and fresh as if he had just put them on, there wasn’t a single trace on him to prove that he had been dead only minutes before. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked, deliberately staring at the sword in InuYasha’s hand.

InuYasha turned Tenseiga point-down and tossed it lightly, catching it by the blade. Tilting the hilt toward Sesshoumaru, he nodded once. “There, bastard. Now we’re even.”

Sesshoumaru reached out slowly, took the sword from InuYasha’s hand. “Baka . . . you’ll never change.” Turning to gaze at his son, the tai-youkai lifted his eyebrows. “Katosan?”

Nibori grinned, eyes suspiciously bright. “He’s waiting for us. He’s called the specialist team.”

Sesshoumaru nodded. “Then we’d best leave before they get here.”

“Specialist team?” Miroku echoed.

“They’re the ones who come in and clean up any loose ends. They’ll clean up the leftovers and come up with a feasible explanation about what went on here . . . other than the truth, of course,” Nibori supplied as InuYasha picked up Kagome. She didn’t complain as she settled her cheek against his shoulder. “I imagine they’ll have their work cut out for them this time,” Nibori continued as he stared at the broken out windows. “Kami, Uncle . . . Father wasn’t over-exaggerating about how much you enjoy breaking things, was he?”

“Kagome needs to go to the hospital,” InuYasha interrupted as he pushed past the others and strode toward the door. She kept rubbing her ear, and the singed mark on her cheek worried him.

“Perhaps you ought to let me take her,” Sesshoumaru remarked. “You look like hell.”

InuYasha shook his head stubbornly. “She’s my—”

“ _Brother’s_ mate,” Sesshoumaru finished quietly, nodding in acknowledgement; an unspoken promise to protect Kagome with his life.

“Sesshoumaru’s right, InuYasha. He doesn’t have a mark on him, and he doesn’t look like he took a bath in acid, either,” Miroku spoke up. “You know she’s safe with him.”

He didn’t answer right away. Staring down at her, he frowned but rubbed his cheek against her forehead.   She leaned away enough to look at him, reading his lips as he spoke. “Kagome? If he tries anything, you purify his ass, all right?”

She smiled but nodded. InuYasha kissed her forehead before allowing Sesshoumaru to take her from him. The tai-youkai wrinkled his nose as he eyed InuYasha. “You absolutely reek, InuYasha. Best do something about that.”

“Yeah . . . you’d reek, too, if you youkai guts all over you.”

Sesshoumaru allowed a half-smile before he turned toward the door. “I trust you’ll be there as soon as you find a fire hydrant to bathe in?”

“Keh! Glad to see you dying didn’t affect your ability to be a complete bastard.”

“You’re wasting time, baka,” Sesshoumaru called back from the stairwell.

“ . . . Damn it.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

A soft knock on the door drew InuYasha out of his slouch. In the chair beside the hospital bed where he’d been sitting for the last three hours while Kagome slept, he’d been trying not to think too much about everything that had happened. It was still too raw, too close . . .

“How is she?” Sango asked as she slipped into the room with a fussing Inuakamori and Shippou. InuYasha reached for him. The pup calmed down instantly, chewing on InuYasha’s index finger. The kitsune climbed onto the bed and lay down by Kagome’s feet.

“She’ll be fine. The doctor said that the gun being fired next to her head temporarily hurt her ears. He said she should be fine in a week or two . . .” Staring at his son, InuYasha finally started to feel as though things might actually be all right. Inuakamori’s eyes stared solemnly at him, and he smiled. “Thanks, Sango . . . I don’t like him being left alone.”

Sango nodded. “I understand . . . Sesshoumaru is in the waiting room. I think he wants to see you.”

InuYasha nodded. Sango kissed Kagome’s cheek and squeezed InuYasha’s arm before she left the family alone. “You’ll never be alone, pup,” InuYasha whispered as he lifted his son against his shoulder as he sat back down. “Oi, runt . . . get off your mama’s bed, will you?”

Shippou sighed and sat up, ready to protest since it was nearly midnight. Staring at InuYasha for a minute, noting the brightness of the hanyou’s gaze, the slightly gruffer-than-normal tone he used, the kitsune suddenly grinned and hopped over onto InuYasha’s lap. “Oof, Shippou! No more pocky for you,” InuYasha complained as he adjusted Shippou with his free arm, pulling him closer against his chest.

“Ugh, it’s a dog pile,” Sesshoumaru remarked as he swept into the room and closed the door behind himself.

“Shut up, will you? They’re all sleeping, if you didn’t notice.”

“I’m not—” Shippou began.

“Shut up,” InuYasha growled at him.

Sesshoumaru’s gaze shifted to Kagome in the bed. “So you’ve done it. You’ve changed your destiny.”

“Keh.”

“Your miko will be fine?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you tell her about your past?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Not if I don’t have to. She doesn’t need to know, does she?”

Sesshoumaru turned toward the window, staring out at the twinkling lights of Tokyo. “I wouldn’t tell Leikizu, either, had it been me.”

InuYasha frowned as he stared at his brother’s profile. Strange how things changed over time . . . strange how someone’s reasons for doing something often contradicted everything they professed. The memory of the sudden surge of power, of the glowing green fang came to him. InuYasha frowned. “What’d you do to my fang?”

“Why do you believe I did anything to your worthless fang?”

“Cut the crap. After you . . . well, after that . . . my claws turned greenish, and I felt this power . . . and I know you did something to that necklace.”

“So I did. Nibori and I imbued it with the power of the inu-youkai—with the barrier against the poison so you would not weaken, and with the strength to see your task through.”

“Keh,” InuYasha snorted but grinned. “Sneaky bastard.”

“Resorting to name-calling again, half-breed baka?”

“If the shoe fits . . .”

“It shouldn’t happen, but just in case . . . if the investigators ask to speak with you about what happened in Norimitsu’s tower . . . tell them nothing, and let me know. The specialist team should have taken care of it. I believe their cover story was a gas leak that caused the explosion.”

“Won’t anyone figure out that he’s missing?”

Sesshoumaru shrugged. “He had no one. No mate, no offspring . . . It’s easy to alter the future as well as the past, so long as there are no children involved. Eventually there will probably be a formal investigation into his sudden disappearance. There is nothing linking us with the likes of him. If it came down to it, though, there are a few youkai in the higher echelons of the police as well as Tokyo government. Nothing will ever come of it.”

“You never struck me as being so underhanded.”

“Hardly underhanded. Would you rather spend the next hundred years or so in prison for murder?”

“Murder?” InuYasha echoed incredulously.

“That’s what they call it now, when you cut someone down with a sword.”

“Keh! That son of a bitch deserved it.”

“He did. You call it underhanded, I call it expedient. Norimitsu caused enough grief in his lifetime to earn his comeuppance, even if it did come from a pathetic half-breed like you.”

“I knew I should have left you dead, bastard.”

“Perhaps.”

InuYasha rolled his eyes. “How’s Katosan?”

“Almost healed. He’ll be perfectly fine by morning. One thing about those pathetic guns: most of them leave a clean enough wound that it heals quickly . . .”

“Yeah, unless you’re stupid enough to be shot in the heart,” InuYasha couldn’t help adding.

Sesshoumaru chuckled. “As much as I’d love to stay and trade insults for awhile longer, I’ve a family of my own that requires my attention. Call me the next time you’re in over your head, baka.”

“Keh! Fat fucking chance, bastard.”

InuYasha smiled as Sesshoumaru strode out of the room again.

“InuYasha?”

Blinking as he started out of his reverie, InuYasha glanced down at Shippou. “What happened to ‘Papa’, runt?”

“Sorry,” Shippou yawned. “I forgot . . .”

“Keh.”

“You don’t really hate Sesshoumaru anymore, do you?”

Had he ever really hated him? InuYasha made a face. True enough, he hadn’t really liked Sesshoumaru before . . . but he couldn’t say he really ever truly hated him, either. “I guess not,” he allowed grudgingly.

Shippou yawned again. “Is that how brothers are s’pposed to act? Like I’m supposed to try to kill Inuakamori later on?”

“Not unless you both want slapped silly,” he warned.

“I was joking,” Shippou remarked.

“Go to sleep, will you?”

“Night . . .”

It was hard to believe it was over. Norimitsu was gone. He’d never threaten anyone, ever again.

“InuYasha?”

Sitting up and disturbing the sleeping children, InuYasha leaned forward at the sound of Kagome’s voice. “You’re supposed to be sleeping,” he grumbled.

Her eyes weren’t focused completely as she blinked to clear her vision. “I want to go home,” she murmured.

“In the morning.”

“Inuakamori . . . Shippou . . .”

With a sigh, InuYasha maneuvered the pup and kit as he stood and laid them on the bed with Kagome. She hugged them as tears filled her eyes.

InuYasha sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged her as she sobbed tears of relief that everyone was safe. Drawing her close, the feeling of well-being washed over him, and he pulled her against him, sang his lullaby to her, to their children, until she calmed down, content to be held in his arms. She fell asleep like that, her cheek pressed against his heart, their boys snuggled between them.

InuYasha grinned then made a face. He’d do something to make sure that Kagome was always safe, even if he _did_ have to dig that moat . . .

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from InuYasha_** :  
>  _... ... ... Did I have to save the rotten bastard ...?_


	99. Masuyo

“I’m so fucking sick of hospital waiting rooms . . .”

Kagome grinned. Almost three months since their altercation with Norimitsu, and she hardly gave him a second thought anymore. Mostly it made her sad, that one individual could be so completely obsessed with things that he thought were due him when he’d done nothing to deserve anything. All the same, she couldn’t be angry about it, either, since the end result had been a strengthening in her relationship with InuYasha that might not have grown had it not been for Norimitsu, and for Sesshoumaru’s desire to change past mistakes. “Calm down, InuYasha . . . it shouldn’t be too much longer.”

That reassurance only served to darken his already formidable glower. He sighed in protest. “I’m missing two meetings with potential clients, and for what? I’m sitting here doing nothing waiting for that lecher to come out here and say he’s solely responsible for adding yet another ass-grabbing pervert to the world’s already startlingly high count,” he pointed out. “And how do they know it’s a boy?”

Kagome giggled. “It’s called ‘ultrasound’, remember?”

He snorted. “Keh! I don’t trust it . . . they were wrong about Akamori.”

“They weren’t wrong . . . you didn’t listen.”

Inuakamori stiffened his back and shrieked angrily as Kagome pulled the magazine she’d been reading out of his reach. The five-month old child wiggled as he tried to escape Kagome’s grip. InuYasha took his son and tweaked his nose. The baby howled, body relaxing as his anger shifted into despair at having been dealt the ultimate in youkai punishment.

Catching his mate’s disapproving frown, InuYasha snorted. “Keh! He can’t get away with that, and you know it,” he informed her.

“But—”

“Wench! You’re not winning here.”

“He got your meaning . . .”

InuYasha rolled his eyes but did bring the baby to his shoulder to reassure him. “No more fits, got that?”

“Oh, kami . . .”

“Why are _you_ here?”

InuYasha rolled his eyes as his brother strode into the waiting room with Leikizu and the girls in tow. Hiding his amusement as Sesshoumaru sat down only to be swarmed by two nearly nine month-old girls, InuYasha suddenly growled and jerked his hand back as Inuakamori sank his newly acquired fangs into his father’s finger.

Kagome giggled as she dug out a diaper wipe to blot the blood off InuYasha’s finger. “That’s what you get for letting him gnaw on your fingers,” she remarked, “and don’t you dare tweak him for that.”

InuYasha shot her a long-suffering look. “No biting,” he told the baby. Inuakamori just blinked innocently at his father.

“Pathetic, InuYasha,” Sesshoumaru remarked as Keiko leaned over to yank the little pink bow out of Kumiko’s hair. Kumiko’s little face scrunched up as she started to cry. “Keiko, that wasn’t nice,” Sesshoumaru remarked as Kumiko batted at her sister’s face. “Kumi, no hitting.”

InuYasha’s gaze narrowed as he stared at his brother—tai-youkai, Inu no Taisho—calmly telling his daughters to play nicely.

Keiko retaliated by taking her sister’s toy. Kumiko howled and leaned forward to bite Keiko for the transgression.

Leikizu rolled her eyes. “Sesshoumaru, are you going to _let_ them do that?” she asked, her voice full of barely contained irritation.

“I told them to stop . . .”

“Oh, for the love of heaven!” Leikizu grumbled as she effectively tweaked both of her daughters’ noses. Twin voices erupted in inconsolable sobs. “If you don’t stop coddling them, they’re going to be spoiled rotten, you know.”

“But you do it so well, Lei.”

InuYasha hid his amusement as he turned to whisper into Kagome’s ear. “And you think _I’m_ bad, do you?”

Kagome giggled. “You’re not bad often enough, InuYasha.”

His eyebrows disappeared under his silvery bangs. “You think so, wench?”

She blushed slightly and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“When are the two of you going to have another?” Leikizu asked, breaking into the unspoken conversation between InuYasha and Kagome.

Kagome’s flush deepened. “I don’t know . . . we hadn’t discussed it . . . Inuakamori’s still so young . . .”

Sesshoumaru glanced at his mate. “Perhaps they wish to do what we did . . . raise these pups then have another.”

“That’s true,” Leikizu agreed. “They’ve got centuries, right?”

“Maybe not that long,” Kagome said, carefully keeping her tone light. InuYasha frowned at her mock bravado. “I’m human . . . I might live to be a hundred, but—”

Sesshoumaru frowned. “Totosai didn’t tell you?”

“Tell us what?” InuYasha asked.

Sesshoumaru sighed and let Leikizu take Keiko as he straightened up in his chair, his arm wrapped around Kumiko’s stomach. “That crazy old man forgets everything, doesn’t he? Totosai was supposed to explain all of this to you once you discovered the Aoirotoku and the Mamorikoi . . . the bond he forged by creating Blue Tetsusaiga . . . so long as you honor your vow to protect the miko with the Sword of the Fang you shall live out your lives as one.”

“What?”

Sesshoumaru shook his head. “Surely you’re not so ignorant that you didn’t understand what I just said?”

“I understood you fine, bastard,” InuYasha growled. “I just wanted to make sure you meant what I think you meant. So as long as I protect Kagome with Tetsusaiga, she’ll live, right?”

“Yes, baka.”

InuYasha grinned. “Keh.”

“ _Keh?_ ” Kagome echoed. “All you can say is ‘keh’?”

InuYasha wrinkled his nose. “I suppose it can’t be helped. You’ll do, wench.”

“I’ll _do?_ ” she countered incredulously.

“Keh. Fishing for compliments again . . . not gonna work . . .”

Miroku cleared his throat before Kagome could retort. “He’s a boy . . . he looks just like his mother . . . and we’ve named him Masuyo.”

Kagome shook her head. “To increase the world . . .”

InuYasha snorted. “Told you, another pervert in the making.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

“Oi, wench! Do you know where I put that contract for my meeting with Neogen?” InuYasha called without looking up from the papers in his hand.

Kagome stuck her head out of the bathroom with her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth. “No,” she burbled, trying to keep from spitting out the toothpaste. “Heck your bweefcase.”

“Keh, and you tell me not to talk with my mouth full,” he complained as he leaned over the side of the bed to retrieve the briefcase. The folder wasn’t in there, either. With a sigh, he got up and headed out to the living room where he had left the briefcase next to the sofa. Muttering a curse as he stepped on a stuffed animal—Baka. Picking up the stuffed dog, InuYasha headed off to return it to the rightful owner, before Shippou woke up in the middle of the night whining because he couldn’t find Baka.

Shippou rolled over, wrapping his arm around the missing dog that InuYasha secretly believed was the runt’s reason for waking the entire house up so that they could all cuddle up in the ‘big bed’, as the kitsune dubbed InuYasha and Kagome’s bed. He spared a moment to pull up Shippou’s blanket and tuck it in before ruffling the kit’s hair before he returned to his quest of finding the missing contract. Three steps into the living room he kicked one of Inuakamori’s rattles, which might not have been so bad had it not been a pewter rattle. “Son of a . . . ouch!” InuYasha growled as he snatched up the rattle and, with a sigh, turned to stomp back down the hallway to the infant’s room. He set the rattle on the dresser, paused to kiss his fingertips and rub them over the sleeping pup’s cheek before moving off yet again to find the contract.

After another fifteen minutes of futile searching, InuYasha growled in frustration as he stomped back down the now toy-free hallway to his bedroom. “I can’t find the fucking . . . con . . . tract . . .” he trailed off as he stepped into the room only to find Kagome sitting up in the middle of the bed with the missing contract held strategically in front of her vastly abundant assets.

“Which would you rather have, InuYasha? The contract? Or me?”

He whined as he closed the door and slowly started to drag off his shirt. “That’s not fair, sneaky wench. I _need_ that contract . . . but I _want_ you.”

“All right . . . then let’s see how well you do, looking over your contract while I sit here and read my book.”

Eyes bulging as she dropped the contract on the bed and retrieved a book that he didn’t recognize right away, InuYasha snorted loudly and let his shorts fall on the floor, too. “Oi, you can’t ignore me, Kagome!” he complained as he reached for the book. She jerked away. He growled as her scent shifted just a little.

“Let me restate the rules, wench, in case you weren’t paying attention the first time. You can’t ignore me. You can’t come to bed naked and think you’ll get away with it. You can’t tease me with my contracts, and you cannot ever . . . is that my journal?”

“Um, no?” she squeaked as he reached for the book and jerked it out of her hands. She grabbed for it and missed.

He grinned. “Reach for it again, wench . . . please.”

She blushed, noticing that he was staring quite shamelessly at her breasts. She tried another tactic. Lowering her chin and gazing up at him through her heavy fringe of eyelashes, she blinked a few times. “I just thought that if you’re busy with that contract that I should be allowed to read your journal . . . It’s fair, isn’t it?”

“Keh! In what world, wench? No.”

“All right, fine,” she pouted then grinned, completely ruining the overall effect of the pout. “Do you have to look at that contract tonight?”

He sighed. “I could put it off,” he allowed as he tossed the journal across the room.

“Go right ahead, then . . . if you think you can.”

He frowned. “I don’t think I trust you, wench. What are you up to?”

“Nothing . . .”

InuYasha really didn’t trust that answer. Still, on general principle, he retrieved the contract and started to read through it. At least, he tried until Kagome scooted behind him and started kissing his shoulder. Two seconds later, the contract was lying atop the journal on the floor across the room, and Kagome squealed as InuYasha whipped around, catching her shoulders and forcing her down on the bed.

“Wench wants to play, that it?” he growled as he nipped at her earlobe.

She shuddered. “I didn’t say anything about playing,” she argued as his assault against her senses escalated. Scraping fangs over the softness of her skin, Kagome sighed and kissed him, held onto his shoulders as he nuzzled her neck. Teasing her with the softest whispering touches, the urgency behind his movements seemed to fade. Maybe the difference was simply having the knowledge that they didn’t have to rush, didn’t have to hurry, didn’t have to fight for every moment. The solitary understanding that their forever would be a very long time precluded the need to satiate the flesh. Taking his time as he feathered kisses over her face, kissed her softly, gently, his lips no more than a shiver against hers, InuYasha rumbled low in his throat—the sound that Kagome had come to realize was the proof of his own sense of contentment.

Through the rising pulse of sensation, the delicious sense of languor hung over them. The current of emotion was tempered by the thorough grasp of love. Laughing as he brushed kisses over her belly, Kagome tried to roll away from his tickling caresses. The sound of her laughter prompted his, and minutes spun together as he held her, chuckled with her. “You amaze me,” she whispered as she wound down to just a gentle smile as she reached up to stroke his ears. He flicked them out of her fingers. She giggled and leaned up to kiss him.

The quick kiss she intended grew into something far more thrilling. A flower of heat blossomed in her veins as he dragged his claws along her hips, her thighs. Absolute heat rocketed through her system, spun around a rising spire of tightly controlled desire. She reacted to the pull of his body, the proximity of his lips, his hands . . .

“Mine,” InuYasha growled as he grasped her hips between his hands. “Understood?”

“Completely . . . so long as you know that this—” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist, “—is all mine.”

“You gonna use it or you gonna talk all night, wench?”

“I wasn’t! You said—”

“Shut up and kiss me, will you?”

His hands brushed over her to capture her breasts as he leaned down to kiss her. “ . . . Okay.”

The melding of their mouths was mirrored as he pressed into her. She gasped softly, the sound captured within the confines of the kiss. Pure sensation, unadulterated heat, the mix of love and the promise of two hearts that sought the elusive horizons of forever coursed through her as she rose against him like the tide, like the wings of a young bird readying itself for its first flight, like the phoenix from the ashes. A surreal cushion of gentle passion cradled her. Held against his heart, against his strength, the flow of power cosseted her against the storming vortex of consummate need. Whispered promises, soft endearments, tender kisses rained down from the gruff yet gentle hanyou.

The precarious balance between yearning and fulfillment, between domination and submission, between instinct and the will to cherish warred with the steadiness of love that had come full-circle, a love that had blossomed and grown. The one chosen to be the protector had become the one to be protected in the shelter of her arms. The one chosen to purify had become the one to be purified in the tenderness of his kisses. Giving was a heartfelt thing, the beauty of the moment magnified in the rhythm of their bodies.

Unnecessary words fell away, ragged breathing became a song. He moaned against her lips; she whimpered softy in reply. Time and motion combined into a deluge of infinity, a continuum of life in the paradox of illusion. Love became liquid heat, heat grew into a white hot burn. They met and melded, fell away with the surge. His power became hers as her gentle aura surrounded them both in the soothing glow. He promised to protect her, and she vowed to cherish him.

Flesh and bone dissolved as a desperate fervor built. She whispered his name as the first ripples of repletion pulsed through her, cried out as he caught her, pushed her, goaded her until everything fell away, until the languor snapped. Her heart screamed his name, his mouth drew on hers. Unrelenting, undaunted, unbroken as emotion and need converged only to come down to one moment when everything and nothing made coherent sense, came down to the belief that they were each others’ destinies. In the quiet, in the stillness, in the midst of love given freely and returned, he called out her name as she shuddered around him, caught her up in the waves of intensity. The balm of the ultimate gift given became something golden and untouchable, and she reveled in the wonder that was InuYasha as he held her closer than his own heart.

The silence surrounding them both was peaceful, punctuated by a stuttered breath, a soft moan. InuYasha rolled onto his back without relinquishing his hold on Kagome. With gentle fingers, he pushed her hair off of her face, tilted her chin as he stared into her eyes. Content to stare at each other, Kagome caught his fingers and kissed them, the softness in her smile became one with the luminous brightness in her gaze. “I’ll spend forever with you,” she whispered.

“Good, wench.”

She sighed and snuggled closer in his arms, her cheek resting on his heart as she smiled at the steady beat. “InuYasha?” she finally asked, breaking the lull that had fallen as he stroked her back.

“Hmm?”

“When I was alone with Norimitsu,” she began as she shifted her position, chin resting atop his chest. “He said something about having killed us in the past . . . that Sesshoumaru was trying to change to past . . . what did he mean?”

InuYasha sighed. “I was hoping you didn’t know,” he grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. “I was hoping you’d _never_ know.”

“You can’t protect me from everything. I can handle it. Try me.”

Running his claws through her hair, InuYasha smiled just a little. Tinged with sadness and a trace of self-disgust, he drew a deep breath as he pulled her forward to kiss her temple. “I made a lot of mistakes the first time, with you. Because of me . . . everyone suffered. Sesshoumaru had a second chance to change it, when you were born. He said he watched the shrine for you, and when you were born, he knew. He and Myouga set things in motion to change the past by altering your future. See, I failed in my lifetime, but you . . . you were able to change it all, just by being you, and just by following me when I told you to stay behind.”

She giggled suddenly. “So if I hadn’t followed you . . . ?”

“I don’t know. I’m just glad you did.”

“But Norimitsu didn’t win this time.”

“Nope . . . and I hear your son.”

She sighed as InuYasha rolled off the bed and ambled out of the room. She sighed again, this time in complete appreciation of the man. Would he ever realize how beautiful he was, in her eyes? Maybe not. ‘ _Then again_ ,’ she thought with a smile, ‘ _I’ll have a very long time to convince him of that, won’t I?_ ’

Grabbing her robe off the foot of the bed, she was tying it closed when InuYasha strode back into the room. To her everlasting amusement, she was surprised to see that he was carrying Inuakamori, who was hungrily chewing on his fist, in one arm and a still-sleeping kitsune in the other. He handed over the starving pup as she giggled before he sat down to lay Shippou in the space between them. Pulling on a pair of red boxer-briefs before joining her in bed, InuYasha stretched out on his side without comment. He’d given up trying to sleep naked when Shippou had started creeping into their room in the middle of the night. While he hadn’t cared, one way or another, Kagome had.

Catching her little smile, InuYasha snorted. “Keh. He’d be in here by morning anyway,” he grumbled.

“Probably.”

“Remind me before we have any more that we’re going to need a bigger bed.”

Kagome laughed as he rose up and leaned forward to kiss her cheek.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Masuy_** ** _o  
> _** " _to increase the world_ "
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from Kagome_** :  
>  _Forever, huh ...?_


	100. Chronicles

Sango frowned in complete consternation as Miroku strode away with Masuyo resting against his shoulder. The seven month-old baby gurgled and grinned at his mother, who smiled despite her current irritation with the child’s father.

“I’m sure he was teasing,” Kagome offered as she tried to hide her smile, having witnessed the conversation that had begun with, “ _Masuyo really likes Sesshoumaru’s girls_ . . .”

Sango sighed and shook her head. “If he passes on that ‘lecher’ gene of his, I’ll break Hiraikotsu out of retirement, I swear it,” she remarked as Kirara raised her head. Curled up between Sango’s feet, the fire cat was growing fat and a little lazy since she didn’t travel nearly as much as she used to.

Kagome giggled as InuYasha was tackled by both Inuakamori and Shippou. Keiko and Kumiko saw the fun and jumped into the fray as well. “Talk about a dog pile,” she remarked as Miroku laughed and Sesshoumaru shook his head.

Sango grinned. “I never thought I’d see InuYasha so . . . happy.”

Kagome laughed. “I know . . . scary isn’t it?”

Mrs. Higurashi came around, passing out party hats in celebration of Inuakamori’s first birthday. Kagome giggled again. “Mama, if you can convince InuYasha or Sesshoumaru to put one of these on, I’ll be amazed.”

Mrs. Higurashi wrinkled her nose. “So would I,” she admitted, “but I’ll try. It’s not every day one of my grandsons turns a year old.”

Sango raised her eyebrows. “You’re right . . . they’ll never do it.”

Leikizu stepped out of the mansion with a huge birthday cake. Slipping it onto the festively draped table, she sighed and stepped back as Nibori followed her outside with a huge box about the size of a small chest freezer wrapped in balloon printed birthday paper. “I’ll apologize in advance for that monstrosity,” Leikizu remarked dryly as Nibori set the box beside the table. “That was Sesshoumaru’s doing, even though I told him you’d not approve.”

Kagome frowned and stared at the huge box a little reluctantly. “What’s in it?”

Leikizu winced. “You’ll see.”

Sango leaned toward Kagome as Leikizu sauntered away. “Maybe you ought to have InuYasha sniff it before Inuakamori opens it?”

Kagome made a face. “I don’t know . . . maybe . . .”

Inuakamori dragged himself out of the pile and toddled over to hug Kagome’s legs. “Mama!”

With a giggle, Kagome lifted her son, planting a loud kiss on his cheek as the boy giggled. Clapping his tiny hands together as he bounced up and down, he hollered, “Pwesents!”

Sango reached over to put the hat on Inuakamori’s head. The cone shaped, festively colored party hat was nestled between the tiny triangles that were his ears, and Kagome giggled as the boy scrunched up his face and tried to jerk on the elastic cord under his chin.

“Kagome! Aka!”

Glancing up, Kagome grinned and lifted Inuakamori’s hand to wave as Souta aimed the digital camera to snap the photo. “Pichure!” Inuakamori squealed as he struggled to get down. Kagome relented and watched as her son took off after Uncle Souta and the camera.

“Nothing shy about him, is there?” Nibori commented as he stepped up between Kagome and Sango. “Uncle threatened Souta earlier for taking his picture.”

Kagome giggled, the memory of InuYasha holding out his hand to block the camera from taking his digital image fresh in her mind. Leikizu had called him the Sean Penn of the youkai world. InuYasha had looked duly befuddled since he didn’t know who Sean Penn was. Kagome had laughed since the stories of the actor who hated having his picture taken was lore she’d heard of.

“Not really,” Kagome admitted with a sigh. “How are you holding up, big brother?”

Nibori winced and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a very impressive set of fang punctures accentuated with some mottled bluish-black bruising on his forearm. “Courtesy of Keiko, of course. She didn’t want to put her hair ribbons in this morning, and instead of biting Mother, since Mother tweaks her for it, she thought to run and bite me, instead. Father swears it’s Uncle’s influence.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “Sesshoumaru’s going to regret not disciplining those two,” she predicted.

“Keh! Like you’re any better, wench,” InuYasha pointed out as he ambled over, dragging Inuakamori, who had wrapped himself around InuYasha’s leg. “You _never_ discipline Aka, and you know it, then you growl at me for doing it.”

She grinned as a slight flush crept up her cheeks. “He looks too much like you, so blame yourself.”

InuYasha blushed, too, as he smiled just a little. “Keh.”

“Ah, a re-emergence of the lovely shade known to one and all as ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red!” Miroku commented as he strode over with Masuyo in his arms.

“Can it, monk,” InuYasha growled as he stepped behind Kagome to wrap his arms around her and rest his chin on her shoulder. “The pup wants his presents,” he told her.

“I know,” Kagome agreed. “He can wait till after cake, and you might want to sniff that monstrosity there. Leikizu said that she isn’t responsible for what’s inside . . .”

InuYasha made a face. “Probably Sesshoumaru’s idea of revenge for what you got the girls for their birthday,” he pointed out.

Kagome snorted. “What _I_ got them? _You_ picked those out! _I_ wanted to buy them dolls!”

“Keh! Dolls are for girls.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “They _are_ girls, baka.”

InuYasha didn’t argue but he did smile.

“Remind me not to invite either of you to Masuyo’s first birthday party,” Miroku remarked, grimacing at the reminder of InuYasha’s choice of birthday presents.

Sango groaned. “Really, InuYasha . . . sometimes I think you’re just trying to get Sesshoumaru to fight with you.”

Kagome sighed. True enough, she told InuYasha that it wasn’t a good idea to buy the girls paintball guns. Sesshoumaru had very nearly come after InuYasha with Tokijin for it, too. Still, InuYasha claimed that even if they were still a little too young for them that they would grow into them. Given the girls’ propensity toward violence already, Kagome couldn’t really think that it was a good idea, in any case . . .

She shook her head. Bad enough that InuYasha and Shippou constantly chased each other through the forest with the offensive ‘toys’. She’d made it clear that the first time that either she or Inuakamori were hit by an errant paint ball that they would both be in a world of hurt . . .

“Pwesents!” Inuakamori insisted, jerking on Nibori’s pants. “Pwestents for Aka!”

Sesshoumaru leaned down and lifted the boy. “Come, Akamori. Let’s see what Uncle bought for you . . .”

Kagome gritted her teeth as Sesshoumaru set Inuakamori down near the huge box. “I don’t like this,” InuYasha remarked in her ear. “That bastard looks a little _too_ happy about this present . . .”

“Leikizu did say that she warned him not to get it . . . whatever ‘ _it’_ is . . .”

“Oh, kami,” Sango gasped as the birthday boy tore away the paper with a happy shriek. InuYasha flatted his ears against his head, wincing in anticipation of being subjected to that monstrosity as Kagome could only groan and shake her head.

“Oh . . . not good,” Miroku said with a consoling grimace. “Wow.”

Sesshoumaru chuckled as Nibori helped Inuakamori dig into the box. “Something wrong, baka?”

“You’re such a bastard,” InuYasha growled.

“I’m not putting that in my house,” Kagome muttered as Nibori handed over the ‘weapons’ of choice to the giddy one year-old.

Leikizu shook her head. “I told him . . .”

Mrs. Higurashi gasped. “Oh, my . . . Grandma is tolerant, too . . . but that . . . ? Not in the shrine, either.”

“The arts should be encouraged,” Sesshoumaru remarked. “I thought to introduce the boy to some culture that he’s not likely to have with a father like you, baka.”

“ _A drum set?_ ” InuYasha snarled as Inuakamori discovered the first of the drums. “I _really_ hate you, you bastard.”

Kagome flinched as the boy started pounding mercilessly on the snare drum. _She_ could barely tolerate it. She was amazed that Inuakamori could, and that InuYasha hadn’t come unglued . . . yet.

The girls, drawn by the excessively loud noise, toddled over and started thumping away on another of the drums in the set as Masuyo struggled to get down so that he, too, could join the fray. Even Sesshoumaru had to wince at that.

“Sango,” Miroku said as he pressed Masuyo’s head against his chest and covered the squirming baby’s exposed ear with his free hand, “we are _not_ inviting either of those two—” he said, jerking his head toward InuYasha and Sesshoumaru, “—to his first birthday.”

Sango plugged her ears and nodded. “Agreed.”

 

 

: ** _::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::8::_** :

 

 

Kagome sat under the tree in the late afternoon sunshine holding a drowsing birthday boy on her lap. It had been a long day for him, and as she idly ruffled his soft silvery hair, humming InuYasha’s lullaby to him, she smiled. ‘ _It’s been a long road, hasn’t it?_ ’ she mused. ‘ _Was this how InuYasha’s mother felt when she held him in her arms? This complete feeling of peace and love?_ ’ Tinged with sadness over the death of InuYasha’s father, it hadn’t been an easy thing for her, had it? And yet, too, was the understanding that knowing love so pure, so beautiful was worth it, even if it didn’t last forever.

She smiled almost sadly, watching as Shippou, Souta, Nibori, Miroku, InuYasha, and even Sesshoumaru darted in and out of the surrounding trees with their paint ball guns aimed and ready to fire. ‘ _Something about men and warfare_ ,’ she decided as she wrinkled her nose. She supposed some things never changed, no matter what era they lived in.

The twins were laying down for their afternoon nap while Mrs. Higurashi helped Leikizu straighten up. Grandpa fussed over the guys’ paintballs being ‘sacrilegious’. Sango was inside nursing Masuyo, and Kagome was enjoying the peace and quiet—and plotting some way to get rid of that drum kit . . .

“Miroku’s got an unfair advantage,” InuYasha complained as he squatted down beside her. Kagome grinned at the irritated look on her mate’s adorable face. “You tired? We can go home, if you are.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes at the rainbow of colors dotting his shirt and pants. “I’m fine,” she assured him, “and I thought you were enjoying yourself.”

“I can think of a few other things I’d enjoy . . .”

She grinned. “I was just thinking about your mother.”

His smile dimmed but didn’t disappear. “What about her?”

“Do you think she knew? I mean, how could she, but . . . some of the things in her diary almost seemed like she _did_ know, about us.”

He shook his head slowly, reaching out to smooth Inuakamori’s hair. “I didn’t understand why she wanted me to have that diary. I never really thought it’d be something I wanted to read. When Myouga first told me to find it, I thought he was insane. It seemed so stupid at the time.”

“But you needed to know, didn’t you? That you were chosen? That you were loved?” she asked quietly.

“Keh. Maybe I just didn’t really understand either of them, why they chose to have me.”

“Do you understand now?”

He shrugged, his gaze slowly lifting to lock with hers. “They chose to have me so that I could protect you.”

“They chose to have you so we could protect each other,” she contradicted.

He grinned then sighed. “I hate what happened to Mother . . . and I’ll never understand that.”

Kagome shrugged. “Maybe she just wanted to let you know that you weren’t meant to understand it, at the time. Maybe she just wanted to let you know that it was all right to let go of the past, that you can’t do anything but try to make the future better, for yourself and for your children.”

He leaned forward and kissed her. How was it that Kagome could understand things that he never had? The girl he’d first met, the woman she’d become, the miko with the strength of all the mikos who had ever guarded the Shikon no Tama . . . this one jewel, this one creature who could mystify him and beguile him at the same time . . . Had the only true meaning in his mother’s diary been the knowledge that, in order to gain the most precious things in life, he had to learn to let go of the past?

InuYasha smiled as Kagome sighed against his lips. Of all the mysteries in his life, of all the chronicles of passing time, of every answer that led to another question, maybe the greatest gift, the greatest truth, had been found in the worn pages of an old diary . . .

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from Kagome_** :  
>  _Drums, huh_. . .


	101. Epilogue

InuYasha peeked over from the contracts in his hand as Kagome glanced up at him yet again. ` _She's up to something_ ,' he thought as he hid a smile. Shippou and Inuakamori were spending the night with Miroku and Sango, and InuYasha had a feeling that sneaky wench was up to her old tactics again . . .

She unfolded her legs and stood, ambling out of the living room with a very definite air of nonchalance-too much nonchalance. InuYasha waited for a few minutes before he followed.

Peeking through the crack in the open door, InuYasha grinned as he spotted her, lying on the bed with his journal in front of her face. Stretched out on the bed, she presented a vision much too enticing to ignore for very long. One leg bent at the knee, the other stretched out with her pretty little toes extended, he took in the sight of her with a very low whine. The soft curves, the rising contours . . . She was singularly the most devastating creature alive, and she didn't even have a clue. ` _How does she do that? How can she turn me completely inside out without even looking at me?_ ' He shook his head slowly, considering how long he ought to wait before he pounced.

"Hrumph," she mumbled as her eyebrows drew together. He chuckled to himself. Lately he'd been given to keeping two journals: this one packed with things that he knew would irritate her, and the second, the real one . . . the one hidden in his desk drawer in his study. She wasn't the only one who could be sneaky, was she?

Kagome gasped, her features clouding over even more. "You always said you like my cooking, you baka!" she murmured, indignant color filling her cheeks. InuYasha figured he'd better stop her before she got any more irritated with him.

"Oi, wench!" he bellowed as he smacked open the door. She jumped as the journal went flying. "Trying to read my journal _again?_ "

Very nearly laughing out loud would have betrayed the absolute irritation in his face, and he carefully schooled his features as he leaned his shoulder on the doorframe.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me," she pointed out, her cheeks bright red as she struggled to regain her composure. "It isn't nice."

"Keh! About as nice as you snooping in my journal. I _told_ you, if you'd _ask_ , I'd let you read it."

"That's ridiculous," she pointed out. "I _have_ asked."

"You haven't. You've tried to bribe and barter and wheedle . . . among other things, but you've never asked."

Kagome wrinkled up her nose. "You wouldn't let me if I just asked," she pouted.

Crossing his arms over his chest and unable to hold back the smile any longer, InuYasha grinned. "Try me, wench."

Shifting her gaze to the side, she narrowed her eyes at his show of misplaced humor. "May I read your journal?" she asked, her tone cautious, aloof.

InuYasha stared at her for a long moment before shoving himself out of the doorway and heading back toward his study-the one room in the house he rarely used, which was why it was the perfect place to hide the real journal. Turning his ears back as far as they could rotate, he heard Kagome following him.

Pulling open the bottom drawer on the immense cherry desk, InuYasha moved aside his mother's diary and the scroll of missing pages to find the real journal beneath. Pausing long enough to run hid claws over the cover of the ancient book lovingly, he sighed before lifting out his real journal, closing the drawer and standing up again. "Here."

She stared at the book with her mouth hanging open, an incredulous expression lighting her deep brown eyes with an indignant light. "You _tricked_ me!" she gasped as she stared at the journal he held out to her.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "Cut the act, wench. I ain't buying."

She sighed and grabbed the journal out of his hand. He caught her wrist and pulled her into his arms as he leaned back on the desk. "I want to go read this," she protested as he nibbled at her bottom lip.

"So read it. I ain't stopping you."

Her eyes drifted closed as she leaned in closer to him. "You . . . are," she argued.

"You're stronger than that, wench," he taunted, mouth moving to the curve of her jaw.

"But . . . we can't . . ."

"Give me one good reason we can't."

"Full moon," she murmured, fighting against the pull of his body on hers.

"The pups need a sister," he countered as his lips settled against the pulse in her throat.

Kagome shivered as the journal fell from her slack hand. "Oh, kami . . ."

InuYasha grinned. ` _I win_.'

 

 

 

 

 

 _\-----  The End_   -----

~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~ *~=~*~=~*~=~

 ** _Frequently Asked Questions_** :

 

 ** _Will there be a sequel to_** **_Chronicles_**?  
 _At this point, there isn't one planned. I think they sort of earned their `happily ever after'… Which is not to say that I won't ever change my mind, but for the moment, there's not a scheduled redux_ . . . _though I have had a few ideas for some `Oneshots'… like the catsuit . . . the games box . . . among other stuff_ . . .

 

 ** _Do I plan on writing another asslong fic_**?  
 _Probably. Though I am never certain how long my fics will be to start,_ **_Metamorphosis_** _shows the same promise as_ **_Chronicles_** _did for being a quite long saga_ . . .

 

 ** _Will the others live as long as InuYasha and Kagome_**?  
 _Uhh… no… Tetsusaiga was only strengthened via Kagome and InuYasha's blood bond. They're the ones who are bonded, and while Blue Tetsusaiga does keep her alive, it wouldn't necessarily do the same for the other humans_ . . .

 

 ** _OOCness_**?  
 _Interesting. I don't think anyone was actually OOC at any given time. The main one I would say who COULD have been considered OOC would have been Present-Sesshoumaru . . . but he had good reason (IMO)… As for InuYasha's changes in his actions and emotions? Well . . . To write a story, the point is, to change characters through natural evolution. No one stays the same, anywhere, including him. If he had remained the same from beginning to end, what would have been the point of writing the fic, in the first place? None. As in normal life, experience tempers behavior. InuYasha found the ability to let go of the past in order to facilitate the changes that led to his future with Kagome. Isn't that the happy ending every InuYasha fan is looking for_?

 

 ** _Was Chronicles planned out before I wrote it_**?  
 _Um, parts. I had more of a concept for it than I normally do._ **_Torrent_** _was a wing-it fic . . . meaning I knew what I wanted, TONS of angst . . ._ **_Purity_** _was the same, minus TONS of angst (IMO…_ **_Purity_** _isn't overly angsty … )_ **_Out of Time_** _was just a quick break between fics . . . and_ **_Chronicles_** _? Well, I had `ideas' and I had a rough estimate as to what went where, etc, but as for sitting down and writing it out part by part? Nope . . . The whole backstory of death and Sesshoumaru trying to change it all was developed about halfway through, about the time Katosan crossed over to the `good side' . . . Which also left me with loose ends that I really hope have been, at this point, completely tied and wrapped up in beautiful silver foil paper with a satin bow on top… LoL_!

==========

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Final Thought from_** **_Kagome_** :  
>  _…_ _I won…_


	102. InuYasha's Birthday (Oneshot)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~~~ ** _Dedication: This is for Sarah, aka sari-15 on mediaminer or sari15 on fanfiction_**. ** _~~~_**
> 
> ~~~ ** _Happy birthday to the hentai-est of my hentai betas!!_** ~~~

The candlelight reminded her of nights spent around campfires. Dancing shadows on the walls cast the room in a warm glow, a tawny hue. The unscented candles were perfect, she decided as she glanced at the clock on the nightstand.

‘ _Almost seven_ ,’ she read with a widening smile, anticipation snaking around her stomach, churning in a heady rush as she waited for him to walk in the door. Everything was ready. The children were at their grandmother’s. A cold food arrangement was laid out on a blanket on the floor. The candles were all lit. Despite her own trepidation, she dug out the crimson catsuit that Shiori had given her as a wedding present years ago. She’d never worn it. She’d never had the nerve to put it on before. The skin-tight stretch lace didn’t leave a thing to the imagination. All in all, she felt completely bare. ‘ _But will InuYasha like it . . . ?_ ’ She stuck her tongue out at her reflection. ‘ _He’d better or else_ . . .’

She wrinkled her nose and peeked at the clock again. Wringing her hands nervously, she pressed her palm against her belly and drew a deep, steadying breath. InuYasha would be home any moment. He was the only thing missing.

Inuakamori was accustomed to being with Grandma. He loved tagging around after Souta and Shippou, who was also supposed to be spending the night there, and Shippou always took his responsibility as a big brother very seriously. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that both boys were quite safe at the shrine. No, they would be fine, even if Kagome didn’t like the empty feel in the house she called home.

But Junkozen . . .

She sighed as the sad look on Junkozen’s face flashed through her mind. It was the first time their seven month-old daughter had spent the night away from them. Kagome cringed. It was the first time she’d been away from her at all . . . and InuYasha normally stretched out on the sofa with the girl on his chest until well after she’d fallen asleep, not that Kagome could blame her. InuYasha’s chest was the most comfortable place to be, and it stood to reason Junkozen would love being there, too. Without her papa and mama, Kagome worried that Jun wouldn’t be able to sleep.

She shook her head as she stared at the pillar candle burning on a crystal dish. ‘ _Or maybe it’s just me, and maybe I’m worried about nothing_.’

In the distance she heard the faint click of the closing door. Checking herself in the mirror once more as she tugged at the shoulder straps in hopes of just a little more frontal coverage, she took a deep breath and waited. ‘ _Come on now, Kagome . . . it’s just one night, the kids will be fine, and InuYasha . . . it’s his birthday, right? He’ll love this_.’

“Sneaky wench.”

“Welcome home.”

Lounging in the doorway with a slight smile and a very territorial light in his gaze, InuYasha let his eyes roam over Kagome without moving his head. “My pups?”

“Grandma’s.”

“My dinner?”

“Ready.”

“My mate?”

“ _Past_ ready.”

InuYasha drew a deep breath. “Keh . . . think you’ve got this all planned out?”

“Sure, I do. Happy birthday, dog-boy.” Kagome slowly strolled closer, wrapping one arm around InuYasha’s neck as she traced his collarbone through the thin white shirt with her other hand. “Like my catsuit?”

“Cat?”

She let her head fall back as she laughed. “Don’t dogs chase cats?”

Staring down at the red stretch lace, InuYasha nodded slowly. “You’re gonna make me chase you?”

She grinned, nibbling delicately along his jaw line. His body trembled against hers. “It might be fun . . . Would you chase me?”

“Any time, anywhere,” he agreed as he pulled her closer, body to body, the hard planes of him unyielding as the soft curves of her flesh molded against him. “Be easier if you don’t make me do it, though.”

“You don’t like it when I make things too easy for you,” she challenged as her tongue darted out to flick against the sensitive skin of his throat, the pulse strong, relentless, vibrant under her lips. “Are you hungry?”

“Keh.”

She tried to step away. He held on. “Thought you said you’re hungry.”

“You didn’t ask what for.”

“We’ve got all night, InuYasha.”

“Good,” he agreed as he nipped at her earlobe, sending shivers down her spine as a shocking fire raced through her body. “We’re gonna need it.”

“Be careful what you promise me. I’ll hold you to it.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Is that what you think?”

His golden gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Sneaky wench.”

She giggled as she extricated herself from his hold. Taking his hands and dragging him into the room, she gestured at the arrangement of food as he flicked his ears and hunkered down, face shifting into the pout she knew too well.

Suppressing another giggle, she sat down beside him, carefully choosing a rice ball to offer him. He regarded it without a change in expression, and when she lifted it to his lips, he grudgingly bit into it.

“That is just fucking mean,” he grumbled after he swallowed the food.

Kagome blinked innocently as she set the rest of the rice ball aside. “What’s mean?”

He slipped his claw under the thin shoulder strap, rubbing her skin underneath with the back of his finger. “This.”

“But I’m wearing it for you.”

“Keh. ‘For me’ would be not wearing anything at all.”

She tweaked his nose. “You’re so bad.”

He tweaked her back. “And you’re glad I am, too.”

“Baka.”

“Wench.”

“Are you going to pout all night? You know, Inuakamori pulled that on me earlier today. He didn’t want to take a bath before he went to Mama’s house.” Kagome stifled a sigh as the faces of her children came to mind once more.

He snorted. “Oh? And you never pout, Kagome? Keh!”

“Not nearly as much as you do,” she pointed out.

“Well, if he gets that from me, then I guess Junkozen gets her eyelash-batting from you,” he countered.

Kagome forced a thin smile. It was the best she could offer when she still had two pairs of bright golden eyes lingering in her mind. Full of silent accusation, they stared at her as if to say that she had abandoned them for the night. “Of course.”

He narrowed his gaze suspiciously. “Out with it. Something bothering you?”

She shook her head, stubbornly refusing to voice her worries about their children when she knew they were perfectly safe with her mother. “Not a thing.”

He snorted. “You really can’t lie, wench.”

She sighed and shrugged, knowing that InuYasha wouldn’t let it go until he’d gotten her to admit what really was troubling her. Sometimes he was more perceptive than she liked. “Akamori sneezed a few times this morning . . .” she began slowly, twisting her fingers together in a knot of wiggling flesh. She winced as InuYasha’s hand covered hers to make her stop. “Junkozen felt a little warm, but that might have been because of her teeth started to break through her gums . . .”

Eyebrows drawing together under his thick fringe of silvery hair, InuYasha stared at her for several moments. She just knew that he thought she was being worried over nothing. “You want I should go get them?”

Kagome frowned and shook her head, caught off-guard by the gentle concern in his voice. That was enough to reassure her, and she waved off his question with a flick of her wrist. “What? No, of course not! They’re fine, right? And Mama knows what to do for all that.”

InuYasha nodded slowly, doubt still lingering in his gaze. Leaning to the side to pull his cell phone from the black leather case, he flipped it open and started to dial the shrine. “So . . . do you want to call and check up on them?”

She forced a bright smile and fell against him, throwing her arms around his neck as the phone fell onto the floor with a dull thump. “No . . . they’re fine, I’m sure . . . and it’s your night, right? Where were we?”

He kissed her cheek and shifted her to the side so that he could retrieve the cell phone. “Well, it wouldn’t take long to call and see, would it?”

Kagome leaned back to gaze apprehensively at her mate. “Do _you_ want to check on them? Because if _you_ did, then I wouldn’t stop you.”

His ears twitched almost nervously, and he shrugged as he snapped the phone closed and tossed it up onto the bed. “Keh. Like you said, they’re fine. Shippou’s there too, right?”

Kagome nodded.

InuYasha pulled her back against his chest. “If something’s wrong, your mother will call.”

She sighed at the doubtful tone to his voice, and she knew that he was trying to convince himself that what he said was true.   Smiling as InuYasha nuzzled her neck, his lips moist, warm, entirely captivating, she willed herself to relax. She tried to put the children from her mind and concentrate on InuYasha. As much as she wanted to forget everything else in the world, the nagging thoughts kept clouding her mind, and when she opened her eyes, saw his beloved face, she also couldn’t help but see the much smaller versions of Inuakamori and Junkozen’s faces, too. “InuYasha?”

“Hmm?”

Kagome winced, part of her trying to talk the other part out of voicing her worries. “Junkozen just started pulling herself up on things . . . what if she falls?”

As soon as the words left her lips, she winced as the weight of guilt crashed down on her. It was supposed to be a special night, just the two of them. She’d planned it for days. Sango had helped her prepare the tray of light foods. Mrs. Higurashi has been more than willing to have the children for the night. Miroku had run all over Tokyo to find a few more unscented candles while the women had been busy. Even Sesshoumaru and Leikizu had pitched in, sending Nibori over to InuYasha’s security firm to keep him busy just a little longer while Kagome put the finishing touches on what should be a night that InuYasha would remember for a long time.

InuYasha leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, staring at Kagome with a thoughtful frown. “She’s hanyou, Kagome, just like Aka. They’d be fine, even if your brother dropped them on their heads.”

Kagome’s eyes widened in concern, and she sat up straight.

InuYasha shook his head. “You know he wouldn’t do that,” he pointed out reasonably.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized quietly then took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’m done worrying, I promise.”

He snorted. “Keh.”

“No, I am,” she insisted. “Just try me.”

InuYasha reached for her again, and this time Kagome did relax in his arms as he gathered her close. Claws grazing over the bare skin of her back, she shivered in a very pleasant way as he took his time coaxing her out of her worries. She tilted her head to kiss him, delighted in the way he gently sucked her lower lip. The simple and complete fulfillment of being held in his arms was slowly giving way to the blossoming strain of rising passion.   A flick of the tongue, a nibble on her lips, a low growl of repressed longing warred in her for dominance over the fleeting glimpse of two little faces that kept darting through her mind.

He shifted her, laid her on the floor with all the gentleness and care he possessed. Kagome smiled at the demonstration of tenderness that her gruff hanyou didn’t always show. He wasn’t afraid to let her see these things anymore, these parts of himself that he used to hide. In the years since he’d first claimed her, he’d always been so giving, so nurturing, and even if he rarely spoke what he felt in his heart, his actions had always made up for his inability with words. The reverence he showed her now brought tears to her eyes as he cradled her cheek in his hand, as he feathered kisses on her lips.

“This catsuit can go straight to hell,” he growled.

Kagome opened her eyes and tried not to smile at the complete exasperation evident in InuYasha’s expression as he glowered at the lingerie. “Something wrong?” she asked, her voice a husky whisper.

“Keh! How the fuck do I get this off you without shredding it?”

She nearly laughed at his obvious dilemma but thought better of it when the look on his face turned mutinous. “You promised,” she told him.

The pout resurfaced at her reminder. When she discovered that she was down to two pairs of panties because of his impatience, she’d managed to coerce a promise that he wouldn’t shred any more of her clothing, and even though it was a promise that she often had to repeat, he hadn’t shredded anything since. She grinned. If looks meant anything, he was about to break that promise . . .

“. . . Damn it.”

“Think of me as your present. How would you open that?”

He shot her a sidelong glance and snorted. “I’d rip the fucking paper off, wench, and you know it.”

She rolled her eyes and giggled. That’s exactly what he _would_ do . . .

A small, furry, white object caught her attention, and she rolled to the side to reach it. Dragging the thing out from under the bed, she stared at the stuffed dog as she remembered Inuakamori’s upset before she’d taken the children to her mother’s house.

 _Trying not to cry, the nearly five year-old hanyou’s eyes were awash with unshed tears as Kagome tried to coax him into putting on his shoes. “But Mama, I can’t find Dog!_ ”

 _Kagome smiled brightly as she pulled Junkozen’s snowsuit over her red dress and carefully placed the hood over Jun’s tiny silvery ears. “We’ll find him. Grandma’s got lots of toys, you know. I’m sure you won’t miss your dog at all_.”

 _Inuakamori shook his head miserably as he scuffed the toes of his shoes against the floor. “He’s lost, and he gets scared when he’s lost_.”

‘More like you get scared when you can’t find him, ne?’ _Kagome thought as she reached over to pull her son into a snuggly embrace. “We’ll find him, okay? I promise. We’ve got to go, though. Grandma’s expecting you two. You’re going to keep her company tonight, right?_ ”

 _Inuakamori nodded slowly.   “Okay_ . . .”

 _She kissed his cheek and tweaked one of his tiny hanyou ears. He flicked the appendage in a perfect affectation of his father, and she giggled_.

Blinking quickly to clear the reverie away, Kagome scowled as she cradled the beloved stuffed toy in her arms. “We couldn’t find him earlier,” she said quietly.

InuYasha sighed. “You want me to take it to him?”

‘ _Yes!_ ’ her mind screamed. “No . . . I’m sure he’s fine without it.”

She could feel his gaze on her as she smoothed the dog’s ears. “It’d only take a few minutes.”

Inexplicable tears filled her eyes, and despite her best efforts to keep them back, she could feel her bottom lip trembling as she stared at the dog and thought about the little boy who missed him, and the little girl she missed.

“Can’t do it, can you?” he asked softly, his tone gentle despite the underlying hint of disappointment.

“I wanted your birthday to be special,” she admitted as the first tear fell, “and all I can do is think about the children.”

He sat up and pulled her into his arms with a defeated sigh. “Keh. I figured.” He held her for a minute, letting his heartbeat comfort her. “Do you . . . Junkozen . . . she’s pretty young, to be away from . . . you.”

“I know,” Kagome squeaked in a small voice. “I thought I could do it. I know they’re safe. I just . . .”

“I could get them,” he ventured casually—too casually. “It ain’t that late . . .”

Suspicion clouded Kagome’s mind as she sat up and wiped her cheeks. InuYasha was staring at the wall over her head, his cheeks tinged with the barest hint of pink despite the defiant set of his features. ‘ _He . . . he’s as worried about them as I am_ . . .’ Kagome hid her amusement as she nodded slowly. “If you don’t think it’s a bad idea . . .”

He set her aside and stood up. “Keh! Fine. I’ll get ‘em. Leave it to you, Kagome,” he muttered as he stalked toward the door. “Anyway, you’d better change before I get back . . . unless you want the pups to see you in that.”

Kagome glanced down and wrinkled her nose. “Baka,” she mumbled under her breath as she stood up. With a small grin, she flipped on the overhead light and blew out the candles, happy in the knowledge that InuYasha was bringing her babies home.

 

 

~ ** _:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:~:0:_** ~

 

 

InuYasha lay on the sofa staring at the fire dancing in the hearth as Junkozen’s little hand tightened around his finger. Flinching slightly when her claws dug in a little too deeply, he flexed his finger enough for her to loosen her grasp. Kagome carefully lifted Inuakamori off the other end of the sofa where the boy had fallen asleep between InuYasha’s legs. Stepping over long enough for InuYasha to ruffle his son’s hair before she headed off to put him in his bed, Kagome smiled at the vision of her mate and her daughter.

‘ _Not so bad_ ,’ InuYasha decided as Kagome disappeared around the corner. He’d spent his birthdays in much less pleasant ways before he’d met Kagome. For a time, he’d forgotten that he even had them. There hadn’t been anyone to remind him or to ask him about it, until she came along. By the time she asked him when it was, he had forgotten. If it hadn’t been for his mother’s dairy, he probably never would have known. If it hadn’t been for Kagome, he probably never would have cared.

Junkozen sighed in contentment as she wiggled around on his chest. InuYasha smiled as his gaze fell on her. Tiny hanyou ears twitching, monitoring her environment for anything out of the ordinary, her black eyelashes stark in contrast with her pale skin. ‘ _She looks like Kagome_ ,’ he thought as he smoothed her silvery hair, the hint of a smile lighting the depths of his gaze. ‘ _Keh . . . two sneaky wenches . . . figures_.’

He could remember his life before Kagome, before Kikyou, before anyone. He could remember the loneliness and the emptiness when he’d searched for a place to belong. Those years were vague now, colored by the passage of time. Though he had suffered alone back then, he couldn’t say he regretted anything, either. Those years of isolation may not have been kind, but in the end . . . Maybe those things had led him to Kagome and to a deeper appreciation for the things he had now, the things he used to think he’d never have at all. He grinned to himself as he leaned up to kiss his daughter’s downy head. All in all, he had to admit, he wouldn’t trade either Kagome or his pups for anything else in the world.

Kagome shuffled back into the living room with a happy little smile. Stopping in the doorway, leaning her shoulder against the frame as she stuffed her hands into the deep pockets of her bathrobe, Kagome caught his eye and winked. “Why don’t you put her to bed, dog-boy? We’ve got some unfinished business.”

Swinging his legs off the sofa as he sat up, careful not to disturb his sleeping daughter, InuYasha stood up slowly and shifted Junkozen to one arm as he headed toward her bedroom.

Kagome kissed her forehead before InuYasha settled her in her crib. Junkozen whimpered until InuYasha uttered a low wuffing noise, not quite a bark but not a growl, either. Taking comfort in the sound, the toddler curled up under her pink blanket and slept.

He spared her one last, long look before Kagome took his hand and pulled him out of the room.

“Thank you,” she murmured as she let go of his hand and wandered into their bedroom. The candles had been stowed away; the remnants of dinner were gone. The reminders of the planned night of romance were gone, and yet InuYasha somehow liked this much better.

“Unfinished business,” he reminded her as she tugged on the delicate bow that held her robe closed.

She smiled mischievously. “Why is it that I’m better able to concentrate on you when the children are here?”

He felt his ears twitch as the soft rustle of the fabric on her body played on his senses. The tantalizing smell of her skin was muted by her clothing; the teasing sight of her delicate ankles, her slender calves wreaked havoc on his mind. A slow burn ignited inside him, fanned by the flash of her smile, the light in her sparkling eyes. “Dunno, wench.”

“Happy birthday, InuYasha,” she whispered as the robe fell to the floor.

He sucked in a deep breath as his equilibrium shifted. He knew that she was wearing one of his shirts earlier, as she normally did in lieu of a nightshirt. He hadn’t realized she’d managed to remove that after putting Inuakamori to bed.   She stood before him with one leg bent demurely, shoulders straight and proud, hair cascading over her shoulders, wearing nothing at all but her mischievous smile. “Damn, wench, I thought I told you to warn me before you do something like that,” he complained, watching in fascinated wonder as her nipples tightened under his scrutiny.

“I like that look on your face,” she answered. “Besides, you like to tear the wrapping paper.”

Two long strides were all that separated them. He closed the distance in a flash of moment. She pushed him back gently but firmly as he reached for her. The frustrated growl that slipped from his lips only made her smile widen. “Wench—”

She silenced him with a finger against his lips. “It’s your birthday, remember?”

He snorted. “You’re really pushing it, Kagome.”

She shook her head. “InuYasha, you do things for me all the time, things for our family. Tonight is for you.”

He didn’t complain as she unbuttoned his shirt, kissing his chest as she revealed his skin. Eyes drifting closed as her hands brushed over him, as she burned a trail on his body with her lips, her tongue, he wanted to reach for her again. He didn’t. Pushing his shirt off his shoulders, she stepped behind him to massage his back, his shoulders.

Pressing against him, she reached around to unfasten his pants. He winced at the ache that built at a dizzying pace as she pushed the rest of his clothing off. “Lie down, InuYasha. You’re all tense.”

“Tense?” he choked out as he turned his head to stare at her. “Tense ain’t got a damn thing to do with it.”

She actually laughed at him for that. He growled in frustration but stretched out on the bed, lying on his stomach as he buried his face in a pillow and steeled his resolve not to show her exactly how desperately he wanted her. ‘ _Sneaky wench! Just you wait, Kagome . . . I know when your birthday is, and I know where you live . . . You’re gonna pay for this . . . damn it_ . . .’

He nearly shot off the bed when she straddled his back, legs tucked neatly against his hips. As it was, his body jerked under hers so violently that she pitched forward, her breasts smashing against him as he jammed his knuckle into his mouth and bit down hard. Her scent came at him in unrelenting waves, heady and earthy, completely Kagome. That scent never failed to bring him to his knees. Weakening his resolve, devastating his senses, her scent grew darker, deeper, far more intoxicating.

She calmly sat up and started massaging his shoulders, his neck, working out whatever tension she had caused as more of the same built inside him. It seemed like every muscle she worked into submission sent the dispelled pressure straight to his groin. The burn of unspent passion shifted into a white hot ache, a furtive pulse. He bit down harder, wincing as his own blood hit his tongue. ‘ _Fuck! She’s really going to kill me_ ,’ he thought wildly.

“See? I knew this would be good for you,” she remarked with a pronounced air of satisfaction as she continued to massage the small of his back. She scooted away, and her movement unleashed another wave of her inebriating scent on his already overwrought senses. “InuYasha, look at me.”

He shook his head, flattening his ears against his skull as a low whine escaped him.

“Come on, InuYasha . . .”

He shook his head again, this time with an accompanying growl.

“Well, you need to turn over so I can massage your chest,” she told him.

“No,” he grumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow as he dug his claws into the coverlet.

“So you’re going to lie on your stomach all night?”

“You gonna stop torturing me?”

“I’m not torturing you,” she argued as she climbed off him. “Turn over, and I’ll show you.”

With a long-suffering sigh, InuYasha rolled over, his gaze capturing hers with a fierce intensity, an unearthly glow. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed, and her breasts heaved with her labored breathing. He leaned up on his elbow and reached out to grab her. Before he could touch her, another sensation shocked him, staggered him. He fell back with a groan as her hands wrapped around him, squeezed him.

Whatever tenseness she’d managed to work out of him was back with a vengeance as he fought against the consuming need to dominate her. When the heat of her mouth engulfed him moments later, he couldn’t help himself as he bucked his hips, unsure if he was trying to get away or not. The sweltering burn was relentless. He reached behind his head, grasped the headboard of the bed, felt his claws sink into the wood as he strained to keep from moving. Eyes squeezed closed, he didn’t dare look at her, didn’t dare watch what she was doing to him. Every frayed nerve screamed inside him as his muscles twitched, heaving against his skin in reckless abandon. She drew him in, deeper and deeper as a throaty moan escaped him.

Trouble was, she was entirely too good at it, or he was horrible at controlling himself. As she flicked her tongue against him, sucking on him in long, hard strokes, he felt the threads of his will unraveling as the ache raged into a painful swelling. “K-K-Kagome . . .”

Unable to hold back the whine that slipped from him as she sat back, InuYasha felt the headboard splinter under his grasp.   She clucked her tongue when she heard the cracking wood.

In a blur of moment, he threw her back against the bed, pinned her down as she gasped in surprise. She opened her mouth to protest as he silenced her with a kiss. Her passion rivaled his as she leaned up to meet him. She welcomed the crush of his body against hers, lifted her hips to grind against him. He was too close, much too close, and the driving hunger that goaded him was quickly spinning out of his control.

She reached down between them, touched him again. The heat of her hand was overwhelming. He caught her wrists, held them in one hand over her head as she struggled to wiggle free. Intent on teaching her a lesson about her penchant for teasing him, InuYasha scooted down, flicked the tip of his tongue over her nipple. She cried out in response as he continued his assault.

Her body amazed him. The same beauty that he had first known had matured into the perfect embodiment of the one he called his soul mate. The initial excitement of their first few times together had grown into something better, freer, more amazing than anything he’d ever known. He knew her body as well as he knew his own, knew her reactions to him, knew the satin flesh that trembled in his arms. Dropping his mouth over her breast drew her low moan; raking his fangs over her flesh made her shudder. Taking care with her delicate skin, he licked, suckled her, teased her unmercifully as her scent shifted and pulsed. Her body was his playground, her heart was his soul, and her soul was his strength.

Grasping her breasts in his hands, he scooted down further to delve his tongue into her belly button. Her muscles contracted under his perusal as he kissed his way to the faint silvery scar, the lingering reminder of the plight that had brought them together. As much as he hated the violent reminder, the memory of the Shikon no Tama bursting from her body was soothing at the same time. Had it not been for that tainted, cursed jewel, he wouldn’t have her now, wouldn’t know her complete love, her beautiful essence.

Her words made no sense, her mumbled entreaties incoherent. She tugged on his shoulder, invited him with her outstretched hands, with the banked fire that burned under her half-closed eyelids as her knees fell further apart, as she opened herself to him.

Her scent came to him again, both gentle and wild. Drawing him in with the invisible lure of whispered promises, compelled to taste all of her, InuYasha pushed his arms under her thighs, lifted her off the bed as he touched her with his tongue, as he gently overwhelmed her. She shivered in his arms, trembled against his mouth. Senses encompassed in everything that was her, he searched her out, explored the depths of her as she whimpered, as she moaned, as she called out his name. Time and again, she returned to earth only to be caught up once more in the consuming burn, the rush of fire. Relentless heat rose in the smoldering ruins of self-control as Kagome shattered time and again only to be restored by the shelter she found in his arms, in the protection of that he freely gave her.

“InuYasha . . . I . . . need you,” she whispered, her breaths broken by smothered gasps.

Rising up on his hands and knees to lean over her, he reveled in the look in her eyes, the secret knowledge that she was where she wanted to be, and he was the one she’d chosen. She was the one who had brought a peace to his soul, to the inner turmoil of the separate parts of himself.

A scorching heat, a rampant burn as their bodies melded together, and he kissed her, telling her with his actions the things that he wanted her to know. Laying open his heart and bearing his soul to her, she answered with complete surrender, with a voice in his being as she called him home. Her passion soared around him, the unsteady rhythm of her pulse matched his own. Everything she was, everything she could be, everything he’d ever wanted was wrapped up in her. She gave herself to him as he lifted her higher, brought him peace as she surrendered to sensation. The sparkling reminder of the jewel that had hurt so many had saved him, too.

She whispered his name time and again, tangled her fingers with his as he surged in her. Condemning his own desire prolonged her pleasure as their bodies seemed to merge together, so close that they could be one heart, one mind, one soul. The rising tempest inundated him with the tempering yearning in her soft sighs. Her body quaked around him, her fingernails scraping over his back as she struggled to breathe.

And when the ache was almost too much, when he fought to restrain his own rampant desires, she cried out, body contracting as she clung to him, as she lifted her hips against his. The heat, the throbbing ache broke free, and with a harsher cry of his own, he couldn’t stop, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and for a moment, he thought he was dying.

The first thing he noticed as coherence returned were her hands stroking his back. With a grimace, he leaned up on his elbows and gazed down at her. “Am I crushing you?”

She shook her head with a little grin as she kept trailing her fingers up and down his spine. “Nope.”

He snorted and shifted his weight off her before dragging her against his chest. “You wouldn’t tell me if I was.”

She snuggled closer and giggled. “Nope.”

“Sneaky wench.”

“Baka.”

“Suppose you’re tired now.”

She craned her neck to peer at him. “Not at all, dog-boy.   Bring it on.”

He was about to retort when a wide yawn interrupted him. Kagome’s giggle escalated. “You’re getting old, InuYasha,” she teased.

“Old?” he echoed incredulously. “Keh! I ain’t never gonna get old, wench. Just watch.”

A soft scuffling sound drew their attention. Kagome pulled the coverlet over them as Inuakamori shuffled into the room rubbing his eyes with a balled-up fist. “Dog was scared,” he said, waving the stuffed dog at his parents.

InuYasha’s eyebrows rose but he didn’t challenge the child’s words. “Dog was, huh?”

Inuakamori glared disagreeably at the stuffed animal and nodded. Remembering InuYasha’s admonishment, that men never showed their fear, the boy lifted his chin in quiet defiance. Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw InuYasha struggling not to smile.

“We can’t let Dog be scared, can we?” Kagome asked as she patted the bed. InuYasha shook his head, giving up before he even tried to argue with her.

Inuakamori climbed onto the bed and settled down happily between his parents. “I think Dog’s okay now.”

Kagome hid her own smile. “Good.”

“I hear your daughter,” InuYasha said, flicking his ears to catch the sounds that Kagome couldn’t hear.

“Jun ain’t awake. She was snoring,” Inuakamori argued, “like a pig.”

“Oi!” InuYasha grumbled as he tossed back the covers and stood up to don his red boxer-briefs before he headed off to retrieve his daughter.

Kagome laughed. Normally when he woke in the middle of the night, Inuakamori headed straight for Shippou’s room. Since Shippou had stayed at the shrine, Inuakamori had chosen the next best option, she supposed.

When InuYasha strode back into the room moments later with a drowsing Junkozen in his arms, Kagome was pulling one of his tee-shirts over her head. “Was she awake?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Not really.”

Kagome rolled her eyes and climbed back onto the bed with a grin. “I didn’t think so.”

Junkozen crawled over Inuakamori, making herself comfortable on her brother’s back as InuYasha turned off his lamp and stretched out on his side. Golden eyes gazing over his children to grin at Kagome, he seemed inordinately proud of himself.

“Goodnight, wench.”

Eyebrows lifting in mock surprise, Kagome blinked as she shook her head. “That’s it? No kiss? No nothing?”

He snorted. “Keh. How can I kiss you when I can’t reach you?”

Kagome ruffled Junkozen’s hair. “Oh, don’t even go there, dog-boy. You’re the one who just _had_ to go get Junkozen.”

He didn’t deny her claim. “Yeah, yeah . . . you still love me.”

She smiled despite herself as she lay down. “Not nearly as much as you love me.”

“Keh. Sneaky wench.”

Kagome giggled. “BakaYasha.”

 

 

 

 

 

**_~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~_ **

**_~~The End~~_ **

**_~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~*~=~_ **

 

**_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **

**_Final Thought from InuYasha_** :  
 _Happy fucking birthday_ …

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Inuakamori  
> _** _Dog of the Red Forest_.
> 
>  
> 
>  ** _Junkozen  
> _** _Pure child of virtue_.
> 
>  ** _Junko_** _: Pure child_. —— **_Zen_** _: Good; virtue_. 
> 
>  
> 
>  _True, InuYasha was born on the night of the full moon but since lunar cycles are 28 days, and physical calendars are 30-31 (outside of February) then his birthday doesn’t have to be (and isn’t here) on the night of the full moon_.


	103. A Chronicles Christmas (Oneshot)

~ ** _Kagome’s Story_** ~

 

 

‘ _Baka, baka, baka, baka, baka!_ ’

Turning the already flattened steak with a vicious yank, Kagome raised the wooden mallet and, picturing her mate’s thick, fat head, she smashed the meat again.

“Where did Papa go?”

Blinking away her irritation as she glanced down into the bright, wide eyes of their six year-old son, Inuakamori, Kagome set the mallet aside and knelt down before him. “Your father went for a run through the forest,” she told him. “He’ll be home soon.”

Kagome wrinkled her nose. ‘ _Maybe . . . unless he got lost_ . . .’ she snorted. ‘ _Now, that’d be something . . . BakaYasha . . . Oh, sometimes he makes me so . . . mad!_ ’

Still too irritated about InuYasha’s latest show of irrational behavior, Kagome sighed and tried to put it out of her mind. Inuakamori frowned but remained silent.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome saw the flash of auburn hair streaking toward the door. “Hold it!” she hollered after the kitsune. Shippou stopped in his tracks and turned slowly.

“Yes, Mother?” the sixteen year-old kit replied pleasantly.

“Where are you going? You’ve got school tomorrow,” she pointed out.

Shippou made a face. “Come on, Kagome! The guys are going to the mall.”

Checking her watch, Kagome lifted an eyebrow, caused more from the kitsune’s use of her given name which only meant that he thought she was being unreasonable. “The mall?” she echoed dubiously. “It closes in half an hour. It’s Christmas Eve, remember?”

Shippou shrugged, shaking his long, shaggy bangs out of his emerald green eyes. “So we’ll find somewhere else to hang out,” he muttered.

“I’d really like you to stay home with us,” Kagome said pointedly.

Shippou snorted. “Keh!   _Father_ alreadysaid I could go.”

Ignoring the hurt twinge that Shippou would still call InuYasha that when he stubbornly insisted on calling Kagome by name, she squared her shoulders and shook her head. “You can’t go, Shippou, I’m sorry.”

“I’m going, and you can’t stop me! The old man said I could, and I am! Later!” Shippou bellowed as he stormed off toward the front door.

Kagome ran after him only to have the door slammed in her face. With a sigh, she turned and slumped back, rubbing a tired hand over her eyes.

“Mama?”

Looking down to see her two year old daughter tugging on her slacks, Kagome managed a wan smile as she picked her up and headed back toward the kitchen.

Junkozen played with the baby doll in her arms as Kagome set her down beside her brother. Junkozen took the opportunity to thump Inuakamori on the head with the doll’s hard plastic body. Inuakamori howled. “Mama! Put her outside!”

“Jun, don’t hit. It isn’t nice,” Kagome remarked as she stopped the forward progress of the doll.

Junkozen’s eyes filled with tears as her bottom lip wavered precariously. “I want Papa!” she wailed.

Inuakamori shook his head slowly. “Papa spoils her,” he remarked sagely. He sat up straighter, tiny inu-hanyou ears twitching around on his head. “Someone’s here,” he said slowly then sniffed the air before shooting off the floor with an excited squeal. “Masuyo!” he hollered as he ran off to greet Sango, Miroku, and Masuyo.

Moments later, a laughing Sango stepped into the kitchen with a huge tray covered in foil. Miroku was right behind her bearing a plate with a lovely butter cream cake. “Merry Christmas Eve, Kagome,” Sango greeted as Kagome stood up to hug her.

“Where’s InuYasha?”

Kagome wrinkled her nose. “Hopefully lost in his forest somewhere . . . anywhere . . .”

Sango and Miroku exchanged significant looks. “Uh oh, sounds like trouble in paradise,” Miroku quipped, running a hand through his glossy black locks.

Kagome’s reply was cut off by a hiss of pain as her sweet little girl belted her in the knee with the doll. Before Kagome could think about it, she leaned over and tweaked Junkozen’s nose. The girl blinked in shocked amazement just seconds before she dissolved in screaming wails.

“Oi! What the hell is going on in here?”

Kagome stiffened at sound of her mate’s voice and slowly turned to glare at him as he strode over and picked up Junkozen to cuddle her. “InuYasha!” Kagome complained as the girl giggled and planted a kiss on her father’s cheek. “She’s hitting again.”

InuYasha frowned as he shifted his gaze to meet the two year-old’s wide eyed innocent look. “Did you?” he asked sternly.

Junkozen stuffed her fingers into her mouth as she slowly nodded, tears suddenly springing to her eyes.

‘ _And he thinks I’m a sneaky wench_ ,’ Kagome thought with a disgusted snort.

InuYasha shook his head slowly. “You don’t do that, all right? No more.”

Junkozen nodded again. InuYasha gave her a quick hug then set her back on her feet.

Kagome sighed a little louder and turned back to finish preparing dinner. Slapping the remaining cutlets onto the tray and slipping them into the oven before slamming that door closed, Kagome could feel everyone’s stares. She washed her hands and pasted on a tepid smile as she turned back to face them all again.

The doorbell rang. Miroku and Sango hurriedly excused themselves to go answer it.

“All right, wench. Spill it. What’s bothering you?” InuYasha asked as he leaned against the cupboard.

Kagome shook her head slowly as her smile faltered. “Do you remember last night?”

A lazy grin surfaced on his face, a predatory glow adding a sheen of brilliance to his golden gaze. “Mmm-hmm.”

She blushed and frowned at him. “ _After_ that, when you asked me what I wanted for Christmas?”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“What did I say I wanted—the _only_ thing I wanted?”

“You said you wanted everyone to be together for Christmas,” he replied slowly, “and that is probably my bastard of a brother, so I don’t see the problem.”

“Not _everyone’s_ going to be here, are they?”

InuYasha scowled and shook his head. “Who ain’t here?”

Kagome counted to fifty before she dared answer. “Your oldest son . . . the one _you_ said could go to the mall.”

InuYasha snorted. “Keh! He wanted to be with his friends! It ain’t a big deal.”

“But it is to me.”

“Why didn’t you say so then?”

She narrowed her eyes as her cheeks blossomed with indignant color. “I did,” she bit out, “last night, baka.”

InuYasha’s reply was cut short as two silvery haired streaks flew into the kitchen. Sesshoumaru’s twin daughters took turns hugging their aunt and uncle, happily oblivious to the tension between the two adults. With delighted giggles, the girls showed Kagome their matching dolls. Kagome forced a smile and offered her enthusiastic approval.

The girls ran out of the kitchen, leaving Kagome alone with InuYasha once more. He glared out the window to his right. Kagome knew that look. He was feeling bad for thinking that he’d upset her. She sighed. He did upset her, sure. What good would it do, though, to ruin the entire evening by sulking about it?

“Don’t you want to go greet your guests?”

He snorted but didn’t look away from the window. “When one of them is my brother? Keh. No thanks.”

She winced when his ears drooped a little. Sometimes she thought he did it on purpose, knowing that she couldn’t resist that, no matter how irritated she was. Stepping over to him, she reached up to rub one of the fuzzy appendages. He leaned down so she could reach it easier.

“Do you want me to go find him?”

Kagome shook her head and let him wrap his arms around her. “No . . . he’d just blame me . . .”

“. . . I’m sorry, Kagome.”

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “It’s all right.”

“. . . You still love me?”

She grinned. “You still love me?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Keh. I’ll think about it, wench.”

“Baka,” she shot back as she pulled away and grabbed the bottle of sake that he’d picked up on the way home from his security firm earlier. She paused in the doorway to send him a quick smile before heading out to the living room to greet their guests. 

 

 

~ ** _InuYasha’s Story_** ~

 

 

InuYasha watched Kagome’s retreat with a frown.

‘ _Great, baka . . . she tells you the only thing she wants for Christmas is family time, and you fuck that all up, don’t you?_ ’ He made a face.

The trouble wasn’t just today with Shippou. Little by little the kitsune was trying to push his boundaries, and more often than not, Kagome was more than willing to tell him that he couldn’t do something, but InuYasha . . . he sighed. He was the one that couldn’t seem to say ‘no’. Kagome thought he just didn’t think before he gave permission to the kit. That wasn’t it. The trouble was that InuYasha remembered too well, how it felt to not have friends. He’d spent the bulk of his life alone, before Kagome. He didn’t want any of his kids—biological or adopted—to ever know what that was like.

And, to be completely honest, he’d forgotten that it was Christmas Eve. He’d spent the day running his employees through their paces in the facility’s gym. He’d barely remembered to stop and get the sake that Kagome asked for. When Shippou had swarmed him only moments after entering the house, the last thing on his mind had been Christmas Eve and he’d given the kitsune his blessing without considering the idea that Kagome might not like it.

“Thanks! I knew you’d let me,” Shippou called over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hallway toward his bedroom to change clothes.

“Papa!” Junkozen greeted, her happy giggles reminding him of thousands of falling icicles. He picked her up and tossed her into the air, making her giggles escalate into trills of laughter.

“Papa!” Inuakamori hollered as he rounded the corner from the living room. Waving around his blunt-ended toy sword, the boy caught the warning look from his father and hurriedly turned it point-down toward the floor before InuYasha rubbed his downy head and stalked off toward the kitchen. Inuakamori wrapped his arms around one of his father’s legs while Junkozen bounced up and down happily.

“Oi, wench! Where’s my greeting?”

Kagome held up her hands in answer. Caught in the midst of making rice balls, she leaned over to kiss him since her hands were a little messy at the moment. Junkozen didn’t like sharing her papa, even with her mama, and the girl smacked Kagome’s head to let her know.

“Jun, don’t hit Mama,” InuYasha told her sternly. Junkozen blinked quickly as tears filled her eyes, bottom lip trembling precariously. InuYasha kissed her forehead and set her down.

Inuakamori eyed his sister in disgust. “Yeah! Don’t hit Mama, stupid wench!” he yelled as he ran out of the room after Junkozen.

“Oi!” InuYasha hollered at his son’s retreating back. “Don’t call your sister ‘stupid’!” Shaking his head as he turned back to face Kagome again, InuYasha snorted indelicately. “You let him get away with everything,” he complained. “Keep it up, and he’ll be just like me.”

Kagome giggled. “Look who’s the pot calling the kettle black!” she shot back. “Jun’s got you wrapped so tightly around her little finger it’s a wonder you don’t chase your tail for her!”

“Keh! I ain’t got a tail.”

She shook her head. “You know what I meant.”

InuYasha shrugged. “What can I say? She’s too much like her mother.”

That had earned him a pointed glower as InuYasha kissed Kagome’s cheek and headed for the back door. “Going for a run, wench. Oh, I told Shippou he could go out with his friends.”

And he had left before he’d realized that he had seriously irritated his mate.

Blinking quickly as he shook his head to clear his reverie, InuYasha heaved a sigh. Kagome was back to acting like she was fine, but . . .

Sparing a few seconds as he stared thoughtfully at the doorway, before heading for the backdoor, ears drooping, a determined light in his gaze.

“I’ll fix it, wench. Now where the hell did that kit go?”

Lifting his chin, InuYasha sniffed the air. Catching the lingering scent of the kitsune, he set out at a sprint, determined to make it up to Kagome, to give her the one thing she’d asked for.

Snow had just finished falling on the city as InuYasha trailed the kitsune into the park only blocks from the shrine. Frowning as he dropped to a fast walk, InuYasha could only discern one other scent along with Shippou’s . . . a girl? Not just any girl, either. A youkai . . .

Stalking through the darkened park, almost afraid of what he was going to find as Shippou’s scent grew stronger, as did the scent of the girl, and . . .

InuYasha scowled. ‘ _Damn that kit! He’d better not be . . . well, he just better not be!_ ’ he thought as his own cheeks warmed in embarrassment. Still, he kept moving, closing in on the bench in the recesses of the shadows where one deformed shape seemed to be having distinct difficulty in breathing . . .

Drawing up before the two who weren’t paying the least bit of attention to him, InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest and slapped on his most formidable glower, thankful that the lack of lighting also meant that they would not be seeing his own discomfort at the given situation.

“Uh . . . Shippou . . . ?” the girl mumbled between kisses. InuYasha nearly growled out loud. “Do you . . . smell someone?”

Shippou grumbled something. “Keh! I don’t smell anything . . . other than my old man . . .”

InuYasha cleared his throat.

Shippou sat up quickly with a sharp gasp. The girl squealed and scooted as far away as she could without ending up on the ground. “Well, you ain’t _my_ son, are you?” InuYasha snorted. “Damn Shippou . . . your mother is not going to be impressed. Come on.”

“I asked you,” Shippou grumbled.

“Keh! You asked if you could meet your friends, not slobber on them. Now come on! It’s Christmas Eve, and you belong at home . . . with your family.”

Shippou snorted. “Kagome made you do this, didn’t she?”

InuYasha reached over than flicked Shippou’s nose. “No, she didn’t. It was my fault. I forgot it was Christmas Eve.”

Shippou sighed. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t wanna be at home with you! I want to be here, with Nyoko.”

InuYasha snorted. “Then bring her with you, but there will be no kissing in front of me or your mother.”

“Does that mean we can go to my room and—”

“Shippou . . .”

Shippou heaved a sigh. “You want to come over and meet Kagome . . . I mean Mother?” Shippou asked, wincing as InuYasha smacked him upside the head at the use of Kagome’s given name.

Though he almost wished the girl would decline, she skipped over to Shippou and took his hand. InuYasha judiciously hung back, making sure the hands went no further than dangling limply between the walking teenagers.

When they reached the house, InuYasha watched as Nyoko stepped inside. InuYasha grabbed Shippou’s arm before the kitsune could follow. “Shippou, for the love of all that is holy, behave yourself in front of Kagome or I’ll smash you like a flea, understand?”

Shippou blinked innocently. “I’ll be as good as you are, old man.”

For some reason, InuYasha didn’t feel any better as he watched Shippou head inside.

“InuYasha? Where have you been? Sesshoumaru’s been asking where you are, and I didn’t have a clue . . . you didn’t even take your cell phone?” Kagome demanded as he stepped back into the kitchen.

InuYasha sighed. “I went to hunt down your kit,” he explained. “Do I get a kiss for that?”

Kagome uttered a choked scream as she leaned to the side to stare past her mate toward the open archway that led into the living room. “What is he doing?”

InuYasha turned to look, almost afraid of what he’d see. Stifling a groan, he turned away from Kagome to stomp into the living room and forcibly separate Shippou and Nyoko, or to be more exact, Nyoko’s rear end from Shippou’s wandering hand. “Shippou . . .”

“You only said no kissing!” Shippou hurried to say.

InuYasha’s eyes narrowed even more. “Oi! Lecher! What the hell did you do to my kit?”

“Kami . . . I didn’t do a thing,” Miroku remarked then chuckled. “Well, would you look at that? ‘Monk-in-Pain’-red? Guess some things never change, eh, InuYasha?”

InuYasha growled, torn between the need to stay between Shippou and Nyoko and the desire to beat on a certain mouthy monk.

Sango gasped, raising her hands to cover her mouth as she stared at the arched doorway. “Oh, my . . .”

InuYasha groaned as he caught sight of the lecher’s son as he swaggered into the room with a twin under each arm. One glance at his brother proved what InuYasha already thought. Sesshoumaru, it seemed, was not amused. Nibori laughed.

Kagome sighed heavily, and InuYasha winced, knowing that wasn’t a good sign. Before he had a chance to say anything else, though, the doorbell rang again. Leikizu was the closest, so she let in the last arrivals: Mrs. Higurashi, Grandpa, Souta, and Souta’s girlfriend of the week.

“Hey, sis! Full house?” Souta remarked as he hurried through with a covered dish of food. Kagome rolled her eyes.

InuYasha sidled up next to her and slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Well, wench . . . you _did_ say everyone, right?”

Kagome just stared at him.

 

 

~ ** _Middle Ground_** ~

 

 

“All right, I’m sorry,” InuYasha grumbled as he carried the last of the dishes into the kitchen and set them beside the sink. “Are you ever going to speak to me again?”

Kagome sighed. “I suppose . . . eventually.”

InuYasha snorted. “Well, you gotta admit . . . Sesshoumaru’s expression when Nyoko touched his butt was worth seeing,” he pointed out.

Kagome didn’t smile as she continued scrubbing the dishes.

InuYasha leaned out of the kitchen. “Oi! Hands where I can see ‘em!” he hollered. Shippou and Nyoko jumped apart, embarrassed at being caught doing whatever they were doing. “Is it too late to have him neutered?” he grumbled as he leaned back against the counter.

Kagome turned just enough to pin him with an unamused glare.

“Thanks for dinner!” Nyoko called from the living room.

InuYasha leaned around the corner again, to make sure Shippou wasn’t trying to leave. “Uh uh, runt. Get in here.”

Shippou’s shoulders slumped but he did as he was told.

“What?” he asked as he dug into the refrigerator for a bottle of water.

“You owe your mother an apology,” InuYasha pointed out.

“Sorry, Mother,” Shippou grumbled, his cheeks reddening at being growled at like a child. “I like her.”

Kagome finally smiled. “She reminds me of Souten.”

Shippou’s blush darkened. “Souten’s her mother.”

Kagome’s smile widened. “Really? Wow . . . but Shippou, promise you’ll be careful? You’re still really young . . .”

“You and InuYasha were young when you—”

“This ain’t about us, runt, it’s about you, now shut up and listen,” InuYasha growled, his own face reddening at the shift in conversation.

Shippou shrugged. “Sorry, Mother,” he apologized again as he hugged Kagome. “Do you think I could have Nyoko over to spend the night?”

“ _No!_ ” twin voices called after him as Shippou exited the kitchen, laughing like a lunatic.

“Still mad at me?” InuYasha asked, daring a peek at his mate.

Kagome wiped her eye with the back of her hand and sighed before tossing the dishrag into the sink and giving InuYasha her full attention. “No . . . I wasn’t mad . . . just disappointed, I guess.”

InuYasha considered that for a moment. “Wait here.”

He strode out of the kitchen and straight to Shippou’s room. “Oi, runt. I want you to do me a favor, will you?”

Shippou pulled the headphones off his head and nodded. “All right.”

“Can you listen for Aka and Jun? They’re sleeping, but if they wake up, I’ll be outside with your mother.”

Shippou nodded again as he yanked a manga off his nightstand and flopped back on his bed.

One last stop to grab his old fire rat haori out of the closet in their bedroom before he headed back to the kitchen. Kagome’s eyes widened when she saw what InuYasha draped over her shoulders. Propelling her toward the door, InuYasha refused to answer her questions until they were outside in the thin light of the quarter moon.

Sweeping her into his arms, he leapt into the nearest tree and settled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms around her. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

She nodded and sighed, the tension easing out of her as she snuggled back against him. “You ever miss it? The adventures . . . camping out . . . ?”

InuYasha shrugged. “Not so much. Not nearly as much as I thought I would. I’d do it all again, with you.”

She leaned back to stare up at him. “Really?”

He nodded. “Keh. You know I would.”

Gentle snowflakes started to fall. InuYasha pulled Kagome closer as they stared at the fluttering bits of white fluff. “It’s so beautiful,” she sighed, her voice soft, wistful.

InuYasha stared at Kagome, her eyes brightened with wonder as she watched the snow falling around them. It never ceased to amaze him, how often she could see something and yet look at it like it was something new, special, every single time. “Yeah . . .” he agreed softly. “It is.”

“Snow on Christmas Eve is always magical,” she remarked as she leaned forward just enough to catch a flake on her fingertip. “At least, that’s what they say, right?”

He hugged her, humming his lullaby in her ear. She relaxed against him and wrapped her arms over his, content to listen to his song. “It’s a pity Katosan couldn’t make it,” she finally said when he fell silent.

“Pity, my ass. He said something about having to spend the evening catering to Ayamakita’s every whim or something like that . . .”

Kagome giggled. “Well, she is about ready to have that baby, isn’t she?”

InuYasha snorted.

“You did things for me when I was pregnant,” she pointed out.

“Keh! That’s different. You’re a pathetic human.”

She rolled her eyes. “I wanted this Christmas Eve to be special,” she finally said. “I wanted it to be one you’d remember, and . . .”

“And you don’t think I remember every single day with you, wench?”

She stared at him. “Do you?”

“Don’t be stupid,” he grumbled.

She reached up and grabbed his ear. “It’s nice to hear you say it.”

He leaned down, rubbing his nose against hers. “Keh. Fishing for compliments again?”

“Keh,” she countered. “Shut up and kiss me.”

Lips against hers, InuYasha teased her with his fangs. “Merry Christmas, sneaky wench.”

Her breath caught in time to her wildly beating heart. “Merry Christmas, baka.”

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Junkozen  
> _** _Pure child of virtue_.
> 
>  ** _Junko_** _: Pure child_. —— **_Zen_** _: Good; virtue_.
> 
>  
> 
>  ** _Nyoko_** :  
>  _gem_.
> 
>  
> 
>  _Christmas in Japan isn’t quite the same as here in the States. It isn’t a federal holiday so school, work, etc are still in session. Interesting but true! Most celebrating is done on Christmas Eve, and they eat the celebratory Christmas cake, etc_ … 
> 
> **_== == == == == == == == == ==_ **
> 
> **_Final Thought from InuYasha_** :  
>  _Merry Fucking Christmas_ …

**Author's Note:**

> Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in **Chronicles** ): I do not claim any rights to **InuYasha** or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.
> 
> ~Sue~


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